The NDC, which unveiled the move earlier this week, cited the need to protect the party’s institutional integrity by ensuring those elected under its platform stay loyal until their tenure ends.
The National Secretary of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Ikenna Enekweizu, says the party’s introduction of an oath of loyalty to candidates will limit defections.
Enekweizu, who appeared as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, dismissed the claim that the move was unconstitutional.
“First and foremost, a political party is like any other association, and every member who subscribes to the membership of the party is bound by the provisions of the constitution of the party and decisions taken by the party’s properly constituted authorities. Within NDC, the decision to make people sign that affidavit is provided for in our constitution,” the NDC scribe said on Wednesday’s edition of the show.
“Any lawyer would know it is trite law that members of any association are bound by the provisions of that constitution. There are several decided cases on this… You can only test that in the law courts. At this stage, we have not gotten to that point. What we are trying to do is to learn from the mistakes of other parties.”
The NDC, which unveiled the move earlier this week, cited the need to protect the party’s institutional integrity by ensuring those elected under its platform stay loyal until their tenure ends.
