The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, has been formally requested to produce official legislative records confirming whether a letter announcing the defection of the Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda, to the All Progressives Congress (APC) was ever read on the floor of the House.
The demand was made by the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners. The group has recently instituted a lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking an order to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising Mr Chinda as a gubernatorial candidate under the banner of the APC for the 2027 general elections.
The plaintiffs, whose membership includes registered voters from Mr Chinda’s Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency in Rivers State, contend that the lawmaker’s defection flouts Section 68(1)(g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), alongside established Supreme Court precedents governing the defection of federal legislators.
In a bid to substantiate their legal claim that the defection circumvented due process, the association submitted a formal request under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2011. The letter, dated 26 May 2026, was signed by the organisation’s Administrative Secretary, Jesse Williams Amuga, Esq., and copied to both the Deputy Speaker and the Clerk of the House of Representatives.
The correspondence requests the immediate release of the Hansard (the official report of parliamentary debates), the Votes and Proceedings, and the Order Papers for all plenary sessions held during March and April 2026, or any other pertinent dates.
According to the letter, the documents are required to:
“…ascertain whether the records can confirm the date on which the Rt. Hon. Speaker or any other presiding officer of the House of Representatives read the official letter of resignation of Hon. Kingsley Ogundu Chinda to confirm cessation of his membership of the PDP and also to confirm his resignation as the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives.”
The association noted that it is acting on behalf of some of the 500,000 registered constituents within the Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency. It further asserted that proving whether such a letter was read in chambers is a vital “condition precedent” under Section 68 of the Constitution, which the plaintiffs intend to tender as a key exhibit in their ongoing lawsuit.
The legal practitioners also attached a prior letter dated October 2025, which had been served directly to the lawmaker to register the initial concerns of his constituents regarding his political alignment.
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