PATRICK ABANG, Calabar –
Senator Gershoim Bassey, Chairman of the National Assembly Cross River Caucus has declared as unconstitutional the current spate of decamping in the country from one party to another.
Senator Gershom said in a situation where one occupies an elected position in a particular political party, such a person should resign from that position as he or she decamps because the constitution only allows cross carpeting where there is serious crisis or division in the party.
Senator Bassey, stated this in an interview with newsmen in Calabar recently.
According to him: “I don’t think defections are healthy. I think they are unconstitutional, illegal and wrong. It’s just that sometimes, people don’t bother to test these things where they should be tested but I think they are unconstitutional and the law does not allow it”.
“If you are elected on the platform of one political party, you should leave the mandate when moving to another party. The mandate was given to the party and not to individuals and so if I want to leave my party to another, I should leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) mandate behind and re-contest the election to get a fresh mandate on the platform of my new political party. That is the way democracy, our electoral laws and our constitution are designed. I don’t think it is healthy at all”.
He stated that people just move from one party to another even when there is no division and the problem is that “nobody has gone to court. The laws are clear but must be enforced. There is supposed to be a Supreme Court pronouncement on this but to the best of knowledge, so far, nothing is before them”.
On the deplorable Calabar-Itu federal highway, Bassey who is also the Senate Committee Chairman on Federal Emergency Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), said “the Calabar-Itu road has been awarded to three different companies; Julius Berger, one of the Chinese companies and recently to Sermatech. The assurances that I have been given by the Minister of Works is that they were using Sikuk funds. They will make sure that they fund the dualization of that road. Keeping true to his word, now that the contracts have been awarded and approved by the Federal Executive Council, I expect that the only issue left is for them to release funds to the contractors so that they can go back and start serious work on the road”.
On when the road will be completed, Bassey said the project is actually under the Ministry of Works and so the timelines will be budgetary timelines and as you know, the most crucial step which is the approval of the Federal Executive Council has been scaled through. So the next thing becomes funding and I expect that speaking to the Minister for Works, he seemed to have placed a priority on that road because there has been a lot of agitation from the state government, traditional rulers, the media, National Assembly and so I believe that it is a prioritized road”.
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