Cross River: Defected PDP Lawmakers 'll Face Consequences during Election if They Fail To Resign Properly, Says Ikem

Judex OKORO

Recently, some PDP members of the State House of Assembly, including Hon. Martin Achadu (Yala 2) and Hon. Omang Charles Omang (Bekwarra) and Samuel Abang(Ikom I)defected to All Progressives Congress (APC).

THE BEAGLE NEWS had an exclusive chat with the Cross River State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman, Venatius Ikem, Esq, on next step.

Read the excerpts:

On some PDP House of Assembly lawmakers defecting to All Progressives Congress (APC), he said: "Well for me and also speaking for the party, we are still hearing all that as rumours.

So we will rather not function from rumours and social media postings here and there. What I do know is that the procedure for defection includes formally writing to your party to withdraw your membership or in other words to resign from your political party that sponsored you.

And in a recent judgment of the Supreme Court on this matter, the court said that you must not only tender the resignation letter but it must be accepted by the political party that sponsored you before you can say you have formally left that party.

"So, I don't know the purpose for which they are doing what they are doing or their intentions. In this life, most people always think that their grass is greener on the other side, maybe they are welcomed to go and eat on the other side they feel its greener.

"However, the truth is that they are still legitimate members of our party until we get their letters of resignation and accept same. So for now that's the position of the law as espoused by thr supreme court."

On if any crisis in the PDP, he said: "I don't know about any crisis and there is no semblance of crisis in the party.

We just finished our congresses and all of them participated effectively in the congresses.

They had opportunity to sponsor people in our party executives successfully and since then there has been nothing."

On the defectors accusing party leadership of being insensitive to their plight, he said: "How does leadership alienate themselves from them? They are our part and not the body. We don't want to wash our dirty linen in public. Since they were sponsored into that office they have refused to support the party in any manner and the party has been quiet about it.

"We did not know that all that was in preparation for this kind of eventuality. In any case, they should understand that there are legitimate means of leaving the party, So, for now they have not followed the legitimate means and are still members of our party."

On what the party is doing to stem further defections, he said: "The party cannot stem the greed of some people. It can only do what it can humanly do. In everything we do, we carry our members along. The vast majority of our membership are happy with our party. I believe that in the history of opposition in Cross River State. So far, we have been able to sustain the goodwill of our members than any other.

"Of course, it's a national malaise that when parties lose elections, some lilly mouthed individuals will always jump to the next party to see how they can benefit. Such people will always find excuses and like the saying goes, you have to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. So, they will find reasons to say why they are leaving or who is doing what to them.

"The truth, however, is that our party stands on a very strong footing we are strategizing on how to win some local governments in the state in the forthcoming elections. The party in government their strategy is to buy our members they use huge sums of money to bribe our members and all that, that goes to show how lilly mouthed they are.

"A fellow that joined our party that rejected him barely two months before we gave him a ticket is the same party he has joined. He saw the potentials in being rejected, he ran here and we gave him a waiver and sponsored him into the office he is now running away from.

"At the end, politics is very spiritual as I always tell people and we will be vindicated. On the claim that they are going to join the other party for second term from the area of the state they come from, they will know what it means to run an election against the PDP."

On impact on their defection on PDP,he said: "Their defections have absolutely no impact on the party as you can see. From reports I am getting, almost nobody defected with them. Our members, in fact, are disgusted by their attitude because it's a clear show of lack of appreciation for what the membership of the party has done for them in supporting them for the offices they hold. What I continue to hear is that they are loosing a lot by not being members of the ruling party and I wish them luck."

On any moves to pursue legal action against them, the party chairman, said: "Of course, we will if and when they legitimately leave the party. Until then, maybe they think it has no consequences. But when they are going to run elections on another platform, being that they are still members of our party, the constitution is very clear that you cannot be a member of two political parties.

"Those are the consequences. So, they must formally write to the party to resign otherwise they cannot run an election on another platform. So, it's up to them. It's either they write to us and we accept their resignation or they join another party and become members of two political parties consecutively which is against the spirit of the electoral act and the constitution, that's the implication."