___By Vincent Jude Palmer Jnr.
Of course, the talks everywhere about the massive movement by thousands of PDP members and leaders into the APC has finally come to an end with the formal receiving of the PDP decampees into the fold of the APC by the Vice President, Alhaji Kazim Shetima at the Cenotaph, Asaba yesterday.
Without a mince of any word, a great number of Deltans who seem not to understand what just happened to them may truly not comprehend. until few months from this minute when they will begin to murmur like the Israelites in the wilderness in the old testament. Every member who followed the crowd to do evil will gnash his or her teeth because they were sold for a price and soon or a little later will realize what they have done to themselves.
Just as Senator Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa said he regretted accepting to be Alhaji Atiku Abubaka’s vice presidential candidate (Running Mate) in 2023, so shall many of those justifying the recent defection regret the stupid action of cowishly allowing two men decide their fate politically. You can mark my words, many will wish they never left the PDP and never defected, but too late.
It is a watershed fact that alignments and realignments are significant aspect of the democratic process where an individual can conveniently switch to another political party platform but what the law says is sacrosanct and a prerequisite factor that determines that. You can not win an election under a particular party and switch to another one the next day after being sworn in. You simply lose your position because the Law says the votes/ mandate is for the political party and not the individual(s).
A look into the Supreme Court’s judgement and interpretation of the election cases of Rotimi Amaechi in Rivers State and Yahaya Bello of Kogi state some years back will blow your mind. Both candidates ascended into power as Governors in their respective states through the back door without appearing on INEC’s ballot paper. They were declared winners and sworn in because their political parties won the election. So, the victory is actually for the party and not the candidate.
Ordinarily, any Governor, for example or any elected public office holder who wishes to jump ship like what just happened in Delta state is constitutionally allowed to do so but should simply tender his resignation letter and move on to any political party of his choice, but with one thing in mind ; that he will be relinquishing his position because the mandate belongs to the political party under which he was elected.
To be continued.
