Lawyer faults Akpabio’s claim on defection

The legal adviser to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom state, Mr Godwin Umoh Wednesday, said Senator Godswill Akpabio claim that he moved to the All Progressives Congress (APC) but did not defect is not known to law.

The former Senate Minority leader through his lead counsel Sunday Ameh had told a Federal High Court in Abuja that he was suspended and expelled by the PDP in a suit seeking his removal and that of 53 other members of the National Assembly.

The lawmaker informed Justice Okon Abang that an advocacy group, Legal Aides Assistant Project, instituted the case without a locus standi, and asked the court to dismiss it.

He argued that group was not a political party or a member of the National Assembly and as such, it cannot cry for the political parties where the lawmakers decamped from.

He had prayed the court to accept the peculiar fact that he did not willingly leave the PDP which sponsored his senatorial election in 2015 adding that his defection to the APC was as a result of the action of the PDP against him.

But speaking in his Chambers along Oron Road, Umoh said Akpabio cannot turn now to claim that he did not defect but only moved when the social media was swashed with news of his defection.

He said,” Movement is unknown to law, unknown to the constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria, and unknown to the party constitution. What we know is defection and that is exactly what he did.

“In doing so he wrote a letter to the party that he was not willing to be there again, that he was defecting, I don’t have a copy of the letter but it was in the social media, in the news and everybody saw the letter and for the distinguished senator to talk of movement today is unfortunate.”

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