The Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP) has initiated a legal action against House of Representatives member Kingsley Ogundu Chinda, alongside 28 lawmakers including Rivers State House of Assembly Speaker Martin Amaewhule, at the Federal High Court in Abuja. The suit seeks a declaration that their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) is unconstitutional and renders them ineligible to contest future elections.
In the lawsuit, ALDRAP named the legislators, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the PDP, and the APC as defendants. The applicant is requesting the court to determine whether the lawmakers' defections complied with Sections 68(1)(g) and 109(1)(g) of the 1999 Constitution, which outline the conditions under which elected legislators may leave the political parties on whose platforms they were elected without forfeiting their seats.
ALDRAP contended that 27 members of the Assembly defected from the PDP to the APC in December 2023, while Chinda, who represents Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, allegedly joined the APC in April 2026. According to the applicant, the defections were invalid because the PDP was not experiencing any crisis severe enough to render the party incapable of functioning at the national level, which the association argued is a constitutional condition for a legislator to lawfully defect and retain his or her seat.
The group heavily relied on the Supreme Court's decision in Abegunde v. Ondo State House of Assembly (2015), which it said established that a legislator can only defect without losing his seat where there is a division affecting the entire structure of the political party at the national level. In an affidavit deposed to by an ALDRAP official, Darlington Uchenwoke, the association maintained that by April 2026, the PDP had become a stable and functional political party, having allegedly resolved its internal leadership disputes and successfully conducted primaries that produced candidates for the 2027 general elections.
The applicant argued that since no nationwide division existed within the PDP at the time of the defections, the lawmakers automatically lost their seats upon leaving the party. Among other reliefs sought, ALDRAP is asking the court for declarations that the defections are null and void; that the affected lawmakers automatically vacated their seats by operation of law; and that they are disqualified from being nominated, sponsored or contesting for any legislative office in the 2027 general elections.
The association is also seeking an order compelling INEC to reject any nomination submitted by or on behalf of the lawmakers for the 2027 polls and to process any recall petitions initiated against them by their constituents. Additionally, the applicant is asking for a perpetual injunction restraining the legislators from presenting themselves as candidates or participating in the 2027 elections for legislative positions.
ALDRAP further urged the Federal High Court to assume jurisdiction over the matter, citing what it described as the failure of the Rivers State High Court to assign and determine an earlier suit filed in January 2026 on related issues. The association argued that intervention by the Federal High Court had become necessary to prevent a denial of access to justice and to ensure that constitutional questions surrounding the lawmakers' defections are resolved before the next election cycle. No hearing date had been fixed as of the time of filing this report. The defendants are expected to enter their appearances and respond to the claims within the period prescribed by the rules of the court.
