A Facebook post by Mirror Box has sparked rumours that the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, will be victimised and impeached by the Bayelsa State House of Assembly for refusing to defect from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) with Governor Diri Duoye.
Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo had distanced himself from the Governor’s decision and refused to decamp from the PDP, because he was elected on the PDP platform.
However, Ewhrudjakpo’s refusal to decamp has been seen by some as “gross misconduct” and an impeachable offence.
According to Naijadailygossip’s post on Facebook, a source within the Bayelsa State House of Assembly said:, “We expect that the State Assembly will victimise him for his choice. If he’s victimised for remaining in PDP, he will have no choice but to do the needful”.
Verification:
Constitutionally, we found out that no Nigerian governor has a legal ground to set in motion the impeachment of the deputy governor. The initiation or commencement of the process of impeachment must be kick-started by a member of the House of Assembly.
Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) states that a governor or deputy governor can only be removed from office through impeachment for “gross misconduct.”
Also, section 188(11) defines gross misconduct as “a grave violation or breach of the provisions of this Constitution or a misconduct of such nature as amounts in the opinion of the House of Assembly to gross misconduct.”
So, the constitution does not consider refusing to defect to another political party as a constitutional violation or misconduct. Party membership is a matter of personal choice and freedom of association under section 40 of the Constitution.
Investigations show that in the history of Nigeria’s politics, this would be the first time a sitting deputy governor would refuse to decamp alongside his governor.
However, at the federal level between 2006 and 2007, Vice President Atiku Abubakar defected from PDP to AC, and all efforts to impeach him proved unsuccessful.
We noticed that though the 1999 constitution states that a deputy governor can be impeached for “gross misconduct” it failed to spell out what constitutes gross misconduct
Verdict:
No, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, the Bayelsa state deputy governor, cannot be impeached for failing to defect to another party with Governor Diri Duoye.
