Lawyers under the umbrella of Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, has insisted that the defection of Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Kingsley Chinda, from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC, is illegal.
Chinda emerged the governorship candidate of the APC in Rivers State during the just concluded primary election of the ruling party.
However, an Abuja Federal High Court has been asked to stop the Independent National Electorial Commission, INEC, from recognizing him as APC governorship flagbearer on the grounds that his defection did not follow due process.
In a statement on Saturday, the lawyers’ association, which said its members include indigenes of Chinda’s Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency of Rivers State, argued that only the Speaker can declare a legislator’s defection on the floor of the House during plenary.
The lawyers noted that there is no record of the Speaker declaring Chinda’s defection on the floor of the House.
Citing Supreme Court decisions, they insisted that the Rivers lawmaker’s defection is illegal, null and void.
“Hon. Chinda’s defection is illegal because only the Speaker can declare any legislator to have defected during plenary,” they said in the statement signed by Jesse Williams Amuga, Esq.
“As per the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria of 28th February 2025.
Abegunde vs. O.S.H.A (2015) 8 NWLR (pt1461) 314 at 368-370.
“The defection of Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda is from the PDP to APC is defective and therefore null and void because it fails to meet the first and foremost criterion for valid defections under Section 68 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.”
Continuing, the lawyers maintained that the Supreme Court of Nigeria stated that the first and foremost criterion for any legally valid defection of any legislator is that the political party from which the legislator is defecting from must be suffering from a major crisis that has caused the said political party not to be able to function.
“As at the time (April 2026) that Hon. Chinda defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) there was no such crisis that caused the non-functioning of the PDP.
“As of April 2026, the same Supreme Court of Nigeria had delivered a judgment that resolved the leadership crisis within the PDP by stating that it does not recognise the PDP National Convention that held at Ibadan and produced the leadership of Kabiru T. Turaki, SAN
“It recognised the PDP-led by His Excellency Nyesom E. Wike.
“As evidence that the PDP is now a functional political party that is not destabilised by any internal crisis, the PDP has recently held its presidential and other primaries which produced Senator Sandy Onor as it’s presidential candidate in the forthcoming general elections in 2027,” the statement added.
Further faulting the defection, the lawyers noted that, in its pronouncement on suit SC/CV/1174/2025, Rivers State House of Assembly and Another vs. Governor of Rivers State and Nine Others, the Supreme Court spelt out the criteria and prerequisite steps before any valid defection, as follows:
“The existence of crisis within the political party to which the said legislator belongs; a valid letter of resignation by the legislator submitted and acknowledged by the previous political party; a valid letter and membership card issued by the new political party to the said legislator and a formal announcement of defection by the Speaker or Presiding Officer of the legislature wherein the said legislator belongs”.
The Supreme Court added that “All the foregoing steps are a nullity in the event that the said legislator did not hold prior consultations with his constituents who voted him into office to confirm that they are in support of his defection from the political party upon which they voted him to another political party”.
The lawyers observed that, in Chinda’s case, “his constituents had written a formal letter dated October 2025 wherein they specifically stated that they did not approve of his planned defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)”.
According to the lawyers, the constituents specifically stated that they prefer for him to focus on the legislative duties that they elected him to perform and not issues of political party defection.
“The said formal letter warned Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda, that commencement of recall process under Section 69 of the Nigerian Constitution as the consequences.
“In keeping with the said warning the constituents of Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda have filed two lawsuits seeking the Speaker of the House of Representatives, National Assembly to declare that Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda’s seat is vacant.
“This is in accordance with the Supreme Court of Nigeria’s judgment in Oloyo vs Egbe, Speaker of the Bendel State House of Assembly (1983) wherein it was held that it is only the Speaker that can declare that any legislator’s seat is vacant,” the statement said.
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