A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday dismissed the suit filed by some All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the Senate and the House of Representatives to stop the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from declaring their seats vacant.
The presiding Judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, contended that the PDP lack such powers to declare their seats vacant as such powers are vested only on the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Therefore, Justice Mohammed, having summarised the facts of the case noted that “it is clear that the crux of the plaintiffs’ action is the alleged threat by the PDP to declare their seats vacant over their defection to another political party.
“The power to declare seats vacant lies on the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives and not the PDP.
“Considering the two pending suits, is there any threat to declare the seats of the plaintiffs vacant without recourse to the court? No.
“This is because PDP has submitted the matter to the court and cannot take the law into its own hands.
“In the final analysis, since the plaintiffs’ suit is based on the alleged threat by the PDP to declare their seats vacant, and the fact that the PDP has submitted the same dispute to the court for determination, I am of the view that there is no life issue in the application brought by the plaintiffs, which I consider to be merely academic.
“And since the court cannot engage in academic exercises, the plaintiffs’ application is accordingly struck out.”
In the two pending suits that the Judge referred to and which comes up for hearing on April 17, the
the PDP listed 12 senators and 42 members of the House of Representatives who it wants the court to compel the Senate President and the Speaker to declare their seats vacant, including Sen. Abdulahi Adamu, Sen. Mohammed Ali Ndume, Sen. Umaru Dahiru, Sen. Muhammed Shaaba Lafiaji, Sen. Bukola Saraki, Sen. Magnus Abe, Sen. Wilson Ake, Sen. Danjuma Goje, Sen. Bindowo Mohammed Jibrilla, Sen. Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan and Sen. Ibrahim Gobir
In the suit, the defectors had asked the court to restrain the Senate President, David Mark, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, from conducting any proceedings aimed at declaring their seats vacant, as well as that of any other member of the PDP who intend to join another political party.
The lawmakers had prayed the court to protect their rights as members of the National Assembly following threats by the PDP to declare their seats vacant.
They cited Section 68 (1) (g) of the 1999 Constitution, which allows for defection in cases where there is division within political parties, and the defected lawmakers argued that there was a split in the PDP to qualify them to defect and still retain their seats.
The lawmakers therefore urged the court to declare that they can defect without losing their seats because there was a division in the PDP, and in the same vein, make an order restraining the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives from declaring their seats vacant.
Also, they prayed that the court to restrain the Independent National Electoral Commission from accepting the nomination of any candidate and conducting bye-elections aimed at filling their seats.
However, PDP’s counsel, Joe Gadzama, SAN, argued that there was no division within its ranks, describing the crisis that led to the defection of the plaintiffs as a mere ‘disagreement.’
He referred to the judgment of Justice Evoh Chukwu of the Abuja FHC, which restrained the Abubakar Baraje-led New PDP from parading as the national leadership of the party, to emphasise its argument that there was no division in the party.
