The Federal High Court in Abuja has declared the seat of Abubakar Gummi, member of the House of Representatives representing Gummi/Bukkuyum Federal Constituency of Zamfara State, vacant following his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Justice Obiora Egwuatu, who delivered the judgment, ruled that lawmakers cannot transfer the people’s mandate to another political party. He subsequently ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election within 30 days to fill the vacant seat. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the court also restrained the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, from further recognising Gummi as a sitting member representing the constituency. Justice Egwuatu granted all the reliefs sought by the PDP and its Zamfara State Chairman, Jamilu Jibomagayaki, and condemned the increasing wave of defections among elected officials. He cautioned politicians against treating defection as routine, emphasizing that they must uphold the will and trust of the electorate. “Before I take my fingers off the keyboard, let me just add that politicians should respect the wishes of the electorates that elected them into office. "A situation where the electorates have made their choices between different political parties and their candidates based on the manifestos and marketability of such a political party, it is legally and morally wrong for such a politician to abandon the party under which platform he or she was elected into office and move to a rival party without relinquishing the mandate of his or her former party. “If a person must decamp, don’t decamp with the mandate of the electorates. "Don’t transfer the votes garnered on the platform of one party to another party. “A politician has no such right to transfer votes of a political party to another political party. “The law must punish such moves by taking away the benefits bestowed upon the decampee politician by the electorate. “And that is what Section 68 (1) (g) of the Constitution has done. “Political prostitution must not be rewarded." Justice Egwuatu consequently held that Gummi, having defected from the PDP to the APC “before the expiration of the period the house was elected, automatically loses his seat as a member of the House of Representatives.” The court also barred him from receiving any further salaries or allowances from October 30, 2024, and ordered him to refund all such monies collected during the period. “An order is made directing that the evidence of the refund of all monies collected as salaries, allowances or howsoever called be filed in the registry of this court within 30 days of the judgment of this court,” the judge added. The court further awarded a fine of N500,000 in favour of the plaintiffs against the defendants.