By Ruth Oginyi
The Ebonyi state chapter of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Thursday said the sacked Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Ogbonna Nwifuru and 14 APC lawmakers have no legendary powers to declare seats of 3 PDP lawmakers vacant.
Nwifuru during their last sitting at the state declared the seat of 3 lawmakers, Ali Okechukwu(Ishielu North), Franca Okpo Abakaliki North) and Victor Aleke (Ebonyi West) who are of PDP vacant, after reading the said resignation letters from them.
But in a reaction on Thursday to the alleged resignation of the members, The state chairman of the party, Mr. Tochukwu Okorie said that Nwifuru has no legal powers to declare anybody’s seat vacant not to talk of receiving letters.
Mr. Okorie Explained that Nwifuru remains sacked as stated by the Federal High Court judgment that sacked him and 14 others.

“It is the position of the law that Ogbonna Nwifuru and the other fourteen who he led to go and usurp the premises of House of Assembly are Interlopers they are not members of the House, they have been sacked by the court of competent jurisdiction. They have no basis in law or fact to go and sit down and purport to receive resignation. As for who?
“Who are they receiving the resignation as? and What do they call themselves? People who do not belong to the House, there are going to sit and receive resignation from who?
“Even if anybody submitted resignation letter which is all fallacious, it’s all forgery but assuming (without conceding) that somebody was mad enough to have left his or her house and walk straight to the House of Assembly to submit a resignation letter. He also questioned on what authority did they sit to receive the letter?
Ogbonna Nwifuru is not the speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly, so he has no power to remove anybody or to receive a resignation letter from anybody.

“You do know that a Federal High court in Abuja removed them from the office because they effectively resigned their positions in the house when they defected from PDP to APC. They choose apparently to pursue loftier political objectives, leaving the House. Saying that was the ruling of the court and that was the way it stands. Now can they then, after resigning (in the language of the court – the court said they are deemed to have resigned), can they now after resigning come back and sit to receive resignation from other people? It’s not done!
“Now, that judgment subsists, it has not been appealed, there is no stay of execution, there is no order of any court suspending the implementation of that order and there is no court of coordinate jurisdiction that can go and say they are issuing orders to go and ambush the operationalization of judgment of another court. That is not possible. And that is my position, the position of PDP in the state, the position of PDP Nationwide. The position of the law of the federal republic of Nigeria is that whatever they have done, they did, first, in defiance of the law, in contempt of court, and as an insult to the sensibilities of the Ebonyi people.
“There are only eight members of Ebonyi State House of Assembly as it currently stands. Anything outside that is a huge joke”.
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