Tension Rises As NBA President Weighs In On Governors’ Defection, INEC’s Authority Questioned

The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Afam Osigwe, SAN, has clarified that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has no constitutional power to declare the seat of any governor vacant on the grounds of defection.....KINDLY READ THE FULL STORY HERE▶

Osigwe made this assertion while reacting to comments by Nollywood actor and African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain, Kenneth Okonkwo, who had called on INEC to declare the seat of Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, vacant following his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Okonkwo argued that since Diri was elected on the PDP platform in 2023, his exit from the party automatically nullifies his mandate. Citing Section 177(c) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), he urged INEC to conduct a fresh governorship election within 90 days.

Governor Diri had on Wednesday announced his resignation from the PDP during an expanded State Executive Council meeting held at the Government House in Yenagoa. The meeting, attended by the Speaker and members of the Bayelsa House of Assembly, fueled speculation that Diri may be defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

However, in a counterstatement, Osigwe dismissed Okonkwo’s call as “legally baseless and unconstitutional.”

He explained that neither INEC nor any institution has the authority to remove a member of the executive arm — including the president, vice president, governor, or deputy governor — on account of party defection.

Referencing the landmark Supreme Court judgment in Atiku v. Attorney-General of the Federation, Osigwe recalled that when former Vice President Atiku Abubakar defected from the PDP to the Action Congress (AC) in 2006, the court ruled that only legislators, not executive officeholders, can lose their seats over party defection.

“The law is already settled. There is no constitutional provision that allows the removal of a governor simply because he changed political parties,” Osigwe stated. “A governor could defect multiple times, and there would still be no legal grounds to declare his seat vacant.”

The NBA President urged Nigerians and political commentators to refrain from misinterpreting settled constitutional matters, stressing that the issue “has long been put to rest by the Supreme Court.”