Defecting Lawmakers, Governors, Others Should Lose Their Positions In Line With The Constitution, Says Augustine Audu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria,

By Frank Oshanugor

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Augustine Eneche Audu has taken a swipe on the current regime of defection by lawmakers, governors and other elected political office holders from one political party to another and has called on the judiciary to urgently make bold pronouncement compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct fresh elections replacing such defectors.

In an exclusive interview with ATLANTICNEWSONLINE on Saturday in his office in Lagos, Audu noted that even though cross carpeting has been a practice since Nigeria’s First or Second Republic with no serious consequences, the traction it has gained in current dispensation is largely anchored on selfishness of the defectors.

According to him, “the constitution in Sections 68 Sub-section 1 (g) and 109 Sub-section 1 (g) has expressly provided in both sections at the Federal and State levels that a lawmaker stands to lose his/her seat if during his/her tenure, he/she chooses to become a member of another political party before the expiration of his/her tenure.

Regrettably, he said the politicians do not obey or abide by the law and defection has now become a norm. It has become quite rampart in this current dispensation to the point that somebody can go to bed as member of one party and wake up the next morning in another party.

“This is a total disregard and disrespect to the will of the electorate whose votes brought them to the political position. Except something is urgently done to halt the trend, the end of democracy in Nigeria may be in sight.

The various constitutional sections relating to defection however, in part gives condition under which it can be allowed, but the Senior Advocate of Nigeria dismissed the usual ‘pedestrian excuse’ of crisis within the parties as reason for defection. “It is an abuse of Sections 68 (1g) and 109 (1g).”

According to him, “that is not enough. Where there is crisis within a party, there is also an obligation to remain and solve it instead of capitalizing on such crisis to cross carpet while still retaining the position which was won on the platform of another party.”

He added that the same consequences should apply to defecting governors, even though governors are not expressly mentioned in the various sections on cross-carpeting.

The senior lawyer made it clear that “the provisions of the law are always applied with some level of logic and analogy. The fact that governors are not mentioned in the sections of constitution talking about defection does not mean that they are allowed to defect. It applies to all political parties and to all politicians. So with interpretation, it can be construed to mean that even governors, president etc are not freely allowed to defect.”

Speaking on the causes of delay in the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria, Audu; a graduate of Law from the Benue State University with a Master’s degree in Corporate Governance and Law from the United Kingdom, posited that there are many factors responsible for the delay, explaining that it has nothing to do with the courts alone.

Addressing the issues one after the other, he pointed out that the courts were often congested with many cases, which invariably give much workload to the judges. “Sometimes, it has to do with the prosecution team not being ready, some times, it has to do with evidence not being available, some times it has to do with witnesses not being available or not properly protected.”

He explained further that in some cases, natural causes like power outage, poor environment etc can make court not to sit for trial of cases.

He also cited the cases of delay emanating from lawyers who engage in interlocutory applications which delay the trial itself and also affect the speed with which the judges will dispense justice.

However, he emphasized that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act in contemporary time, discourages interlocutory appeals arising from criminal trials. Audu is therefore optimistic that with the reduction in the number of interlocutory applications, the delays would he highly minimized.

With about 20 years of experience at the Bar, working with Chief Seun Akinbiyi (SAN) ,Femi Falana (SAN) before starting his firm, Lawlinks Legal Practitioners and rising to become one of the 56 lawyers confirmed as Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in September, 2025, Audu is rightly positioned to assess the performance of the Bola Tinubu administration with respect to the provisions of Chapter II of the Nigerian Constitution which hinges on the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.

In his words, “if I am to rate the Tinubu administration based on the Directive Principles, I will not score the administration high, though I must admit that the administration has taken some right steps in ensuring that the life of the ordinary citizen is better off.”

However, he faulted the implementation process of certain policy decisions which makes it look like the government is not doing well. He cited example with the approved direct payment of stipends to the less privileged to cushion the effect of the harsh economy. He recalled how the former Minister mismanaged the exercise with funds diverted to wrong hands.

Audu believed that the government has good intentions to improve the various sectors like education, health and so on, yet implementation of the policies has always been the problem.

Speaking on the 2027 general elections with respect to the fear of a repeat experience where there was alleged glitch during the 2023 election, the senior lawyer had this to say: “We have great hope and expectations in the current Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). I believe and hope, prayerfully that he would not disappoint Nigerians. Looking at his pedigree so far, what he has done and looking at the fact that he is senior member of the Bar, we believe that he would deliver.

“However, we are not going to put all our eggs in one basket. The issue of IREV will not be solely depended on. We will learn to take results from pulling booths immediately votes are counted and transferred to IREV or not. Let the results be rightly collated and everything will be done in a proper and transparent manner,” he said.