Members of the opposition political parties in the House of Representatives have kicked against attempts by some members of the Rivers state House of Assembly to illegally extend the tenure of the local government councils in the state.
The group, Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), on Friday kicked against the move, accusing some lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) of being behind the act.
The spokesman of the group, Ikenga Ugochinyere, at a press briefing held in Abuja, condemned the plan by the embattled members of the River state House of Assembly to override Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s veto, without sending the controversial bill to the governor for assent.
Ugochinyere, who described the passage of the controversial legislation as “a recipe for chaos and lawlessness,” said the purported tenure elongation was “legislative rascality and a coup against democracy that is dead on arrival.”
He urged the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately conduct a bye-election for the replacement of the lawmakers who defected from the PDP to the APC in breach of the provisions of the Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
