A former Kaduna State House of Assembly Speaker, Aminu Shagali, said the house leadership under Yusuf Zailani lacked power to declare his seat vacant because he is still an APC member elected on the platform of the party.
The former speaker was reacting to the position taken by the house during a plenary presided by the deputy speaker Isaac Auta Zankai on Tuesday that declared his seat vacant for absenteeism.
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE reported that the house took the decision against the former speaker because he stopped attending its activities since last year.
They claimed that Shagali was absent for over 120 days without giving a reason for his absenteeism.
But in his reaction, Shagali said there are criteria to consider first before declaring a seat of a lawmaker vacant and that he has not abused any of such criteria.
According to him, a lawmaker must be absent for 176 consecutive days from the house before his seat can be declared vacant, and in his case the days were not up to that.
“I was elected on the platform of APC and I didn’t decamp to any political party so there are certain criteria before any seat can be declared vacant. This is because you have to have 176 consecutive sittings before a seat can be declared vacant and I think they sat for less than 25 times throughout that period.
“So, I don’t think you can declare someone’s seat vacant when the house didn’t sit for half of the expected days they are expected to seat. On that they don’t have any right. So we are going to go to court to seek redress,” he said.
