Contrary to information being peddled i some quaters that there is an existing court order barring 11 former PDP senators from defecting to the APC last week, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said there is no such order.
In a statement issued in Ilorin on Sunday by its spokesman, Lai Mohammed, the party said the existing court order is to the effect that the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives should maintain the status quo concerning defecting lawmakers.
According to the APC, the order only means that neither the President of the Senate nor the Speaker of the House can declare the seats of the defector vacant and not that their letter cannot be read on the floor.
The statement reads in part:
"We are not asking that the issue of the defection should be discussed or debated on the floor of the Senate. All we are saying is that the Senate President should read the letter of notification.
"The act of defection by the 11 Senators took place the moment they handed their letter to the Senate President at 10 am on the morning of Wednesday 29th of January 2014 whether or not the Senate President goes ahead to read the letter. Therefore, trying to stall the defection by stonewalling on the letter or attempting to secure a dubious injunction especially when our lawyers were not served the motion papers until about 4 pm of the same Wednesday is like seeking to abort a pregnancy when the baby has already been born.
"The existing court order that the Senate President and the House Speaker should maintain the status quo actually strengthens the letter written by the Senators who defected, because it says that their seats cannot be declared vacant until the issue has been determined, hence their defection letter should be read without delay," APC said.
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