BILL TO PREVENT DEFECTIONS OF LAWMAKERS PASSES SECOND READING IN HOUSE OF REPS

A bill aimed at curbing the frequent defections of federal lawmakers from one political party to another has successfully passed its second reading in the House of Representatives.

The bill proposes a significant amendment to Section 68(1g) of the 1999 Constitution, requiring National Assembly members to officially resign from their political party before defecting to another.

The bill comes in response to the increasing wave of defections, particularly from opposition parties to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Over the past few years, both the Senate and the House of Representatives have witnessed a number of lawmakers switching parties, sparking concerns about the integrity and stability of the political process.

Clause 1 of the bill seeks to amend Section 68(g) of the Constitution, stating that, “No member of the Senate or House of Representatives shall be deemed to have validly defected to another political party unless they have first submitted a written letter of resignation to the political party on whose platform they were elected, and such resignation has been duly communicated to the National Chairman or Secretary of the party through a verifiable medium, including but not limited to physical delivery with an official acknowledgement of receipt, electronic mail, or other legally recognised means of documented transmission.”

The bill aims to make party defections a more transparent and accountable process by ensuring that lawmakers formally resign from their former party before seeking membership elsewhere.

Constitutional lawyer, Femi Falana has recently weighed in on the issue, calling the mass defections of lawmakers in the National Assembly illegal.

Falana emphasized that any lawmaker seeking to defect should first resign from the party that sponsored their election, highlighting the need for legal adherence in the defection process.

The bill follows a significant legal precedent. In 2022, the Federal High Court in Abuja ruled to sack two members of the House of Representatives and 18 members of the Cross River State House of Assembly for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC without resigning from their original parties.

This ruling was based on the argument that the defections were in violation of the constitutional requirements for party changes.