Mr Obinna Okwarra, representing Nkwerre in the Imo State House of Assembly, has vowed to drag Kennedy Ibe, Speaker of the House for declaring his seat vacant.
Okwara, who spoke to DAILY POST at his country home, Nkwerre, on Thursday said the Speaker doesn’t have the right.
“He has shot himself in the foot and I am not moved by his shenanigans,” he added.
He said the Speaker had committed contempt of the court since there were existing suits in courts of competent jurisdiction on the matter in which Ibe was a co-defendant.
He described the pronouncement by the Speaker, Kennedy Ibeh vacating his seat for defecting from the All Progressives Congress, APC, to Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as illegal, null and void.
“This is a parliament that suspended me for attending the burial ceremony of Uche Nwosu’s mother in December.
“I will go to court for the interpretation of the section 109 which he relied on to declare my seat vacant. He doesn’t have the right. He has shot himself in the foot and I am not moved by his shenanigans.” he added.
“You don’t keep something on nothing and expect it to stand. Who is even the complainant in this matter. Did I write any letter to the house announcing my defection to the PDP?”
Okwara said “the speaker risks a jail term for declaring my seat vacant. The matter he dabbled into is sub judice. There are five suits at the Federal High in Owerri challenging the defecting of 17 out of the 27 Imo lawmakers from PDP to APC.
“We are lawmakers. We don’t interpret the laws. The courts do. He who goes to the equity must go with a clean hands. The speaker should first declare his own seat vacant for defecting to three political parties in four political outings in three years.”
Okwara added that Ibe also does not have moral justification to take the decision since he had committed similar offense having defected from Action Alliance, the party that sponsored his emergence in 2019, to PDP and APC currently.
He also accused the speaker of leading the parliament astray, adding that “Imo State House of Assembly is now a Fuji house of commotion. It is very unfortunate that Kennedy Ibe in his desperation has destroyed the integrity of our parliament.”
