"The lawmakers claiming to be APC members lost their seats after their defection from the PDP, the political party platform on which they were elected into the House.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the 27 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers at the Rivers House of Assembly can't impeach Gov Siminalayi Fubara because they are no longer members of the House.
Debo Ologunagba, the PDP national publicity secretary, said this at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja.
Mr Ologunagba said the directive by the state APC chapter for the lawmakers to commence impeachment proceedings against the governor was in vain.
He said the APC lawmakers had since vacated their seats at the House by section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution.
"The lawmakers claiming to be APC members lost their seats after their defection from the PDP, the political party platform on which they were elected into the House.
"For emphasis, Section 109 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution provides that: a member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if ... (g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected.
"It should be noted that Section 109 (1) (g) of the Constitution is self-executory. The import of this provision is that the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, who defected, have vacated their seat by reason of that defection," he said.
Mr Ologunagba advised APC to come to terms with the fact that Rivers was home to PDP and that the people of the state were not ready to leave the party.
Governor Fubara and his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, have been at loggerheads over governance and the control of political structure in the state.
Although there was a ceasefire when President Bola Tinubu intervened to settle the rift between the two erstwhile political allies, recent events in the state indicate that the truce may have broken down as some commissioners loyal to Mr Wike resigned from the state cabinet following their redeployment to new ministries by the Governor.
