The Plateau State House of Assembly has declared the seat of the former Speaker Nuhu Ayuba Abok, vacant for defecting from All Progressive Congress (APC) to the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaker of the House, Yakubu Sanda, disclosed this today Tuesday, during the House plenary in Jos following a letter from the Plateau State APC.
Sanda said the letter requested the House to declare the seat of the former Speaker, vacant following his defection, contrary to section 109 (1) of the Nigerian Constitution.
Abok, representing Jos East State Constituency, last week defected from the APC to the PDP, claiming that the House had impeached him wrongfully without a two-thirds majority.
The House also declared the Rukuba/Irigwe State Constituency seat vacant, following the victory of the former member, Hon Musa Agah at the recent Jos North/Bassa Federal Constituency bye-election.
Abok, in a press statement through his media Assistant, Itse Samuel Kaze, tender his letter of resignation from the ruling APC and presented a letter of intent, seeking to return to his former party, PDP, at the party’s Local Government Secretariat in Angware, Jos East Local Government Area.
WikkiTimes recalled that the former Speaker impeached on 28 October 2021 and replaced by Sanda Yakubu, the member representing Pengana state constituency of Bassa Local Government Area, despite the opposition of members of the minority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Sixteen out of the 24 members of the assembly, who had passed a vote of no confidence, voted in favour of the impeachment at plenary in a voice vote.
When the impeachment process began, PDP members in the house, who were loyal to the former speaker, seized the mace in a futile bid to stave it off.
But their attempt only led to a mild commotion as members of the APC retrieved the mace from them and continued the process.
