Defection: Supreme Court Orders Ondo Rep To Vacate Seat

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a member of House of
Representatives representing Akure South/North Federal Constituency of
Ondo State, Ifedayo Abegunde, to vacate his seat on account of his
defection from the Labour Party, which sponsored his election in 2011,
to the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria.

In a unanimous decision by the seven-man panel, led by the Chief
Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, the apex court held that
Abegunde's defection could not be justified since his excuse of
purported division in the Labour Party was not in existence in the
"national structure" of the party.

The court noted that the division and factionalisation, cited by
Abegunde as his excuse for abandoning the LP, was only at the state
level.

Justice Musa Muhammad, who read the lead judgment, held that only a
"division" that makes it "impossible or impracticable" for the party
to function, by virtue of the provision in Section 68(1)(g) of the
constitution, justifies a person's defection to another party.

Abegunde had defected from LP to the ACN in 2011, and in a bid to
pre-empt the party from recalling him, filed a suit at the Federal
High Court.

He lost the case at the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal and
subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court.
--PUNCH