The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Afam Osigwe (SAN), has dismissed calls for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare the seat of Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, vacant following his resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), describing such demands as “baseless and unconstitutional.”
Osigwe’s remarks came in response to statements by Nollywood actor and African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain Kenneth Okonkwo, who urged INEC to declare Diri’s seat vacant and conduct a fresh election within 90 days. Okonkwo argued that Diri’s exit from the PDP, the party on whose platform he was elected in 2023, amounted to forfeiting his mandate.
Diri resigned from the PDP on Wednesday during an expanded State Executive Council meeting at the Government House, Yenagoa. The gathering was attended by the state assembly speaker, Abraham Ingobere, his deputy, Michael Ogbere, the All Progressives Grand Alliance minority leader, Edward Brigidi, and seven other lawmakers. The governor attributed his decision to leave the party to what he called “obvious reasons,” fuelling speculation that he may defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
His departure followed similar moves by Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah and three members of the House of Representatives, who also dumped the opposition PDP for the APC earlier in the week.
But Osigwe insisted that neither INEC nor any other institution has the constitutional power to declare the office of a governor vacant on account of party defection. Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, the NBA president cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in Atiku v. Attorney-General of the Federation, which held that only legislators risk losing their seats for switching parties.
“In 2006, when then–Vice President Atiku Abubakar defected from the PDP to the Action Congress, President Obasanjo tried to declare his office vacant,” Osigwe explained. “The Supreme Court ruled unequivocally that the provision on defection applies solely to the legislature, not the executive. That remains the law.”
He added: “Here we are in 2025 still debating an issue long settled by the courts. A governor can defect fifty times and there would still be no constitutional basis for INEC or anyone else to remove him.”
Osigwe urged Nigerians and political commentators to stop “wasting judicial and journalistic time” on already settled matters, stressing that the constitutional position on defections by elected executives “is clear and unambiguous.”
