A Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed May 17 for judgment in a suit challenging the legality of the defection, last year, by Senate President Bukola Saraki, House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara and 52 other members of the National Assembly from their former political parties.
Justice Okon Abang gave the date after entertaining arguments from lawyers who represented parties in the suit filed by a group, Legal Defence and Assistant Project (LEDAP).
Mr Mahmud Magaji (SAN), who led a team of lawyers for Saraki and 16 other senators, queried the suit’s competence and the plaintiff’s locus standi (the right to initiate the suit).
Magaji argued that as civil society organisation/a non-government organisation (NGO), the plaintiff could not challenge his clients’ decision to abandon their former political parties.
He also argued that the plaintiff’s case has no basis in law because LEDAP is neither a political party, a voter nor a member of the constituencies represented by the defectors.
The lawyer noted that besides being an NGO, the plaintiff failed to disclose what peculiar loss it suffered as a result the lawmakers’ defection, other than what other Nigerians suffered.
He noted that the plaintiff, in all the documents it filed in court, did not claim or exhibit any document to show that it is a political party or representative of any political party or a voter.
Magaji urged the court to hold that the plaintiff is a busybody and a stranger it relates to the issues that informed the lawmakers’ defection.
Prof Joash Amupitan (SAN), who represented the other lawmakers, who are mainly members of the House of Representatives, averred that the lawmakers were from deferment parts of the country. The lawyer argued that the fact that the lawmakers are not from the same part of the country lends credence to their claim that the division in their parties, which led to their defections, was fundamental and national in scope.
He also challenged the plaintiff’s locus standi and the competence of the suit.
Amupitan argued that the division in the parties, from which the lawmakers defected, was grave to the extent that one of the affected parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC), could not field candidate in Zamfara and Rivers states.
He contended that the suit was merely designed to waste the court’s time and prayed it to dismiss the case.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), prayed the court to uphold his client’s contention and grant all its prayers.
The lawyer argued that the court could, as contended by the plaintiff, invoke Section 251 of the Constitution to sack the defendants, who are Federal lawmakers.
He said the defendants’ defections were actuated by selfish reasons other than their claim of division in the former parties.
Okutepa urged the court to declare the defectors’ seats vacant without fair or favour.
He further argued that heaven will not fall should the court sacks the defendants on account of their unlawful defection.
In the substantive suit, filed on September 14, last year, the plaintiff prayed the court to compel the affected legislators to not only vacate their seats in the National Assembly but also refund all allowances and remuneration they received since their defections.
LEDAP also prayed for an order compelling the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct by-elections in the constituencies of the defecting lawmakers.
It averred that by Section 68 (1) (g) of the Constitution, “any member of the National Assembly, who resigns from the political party that sponsored his election into the National Assembly, before the expiration of the term for which he was elected, automatically loses his seat in the Assembly, unless saved by the exception under that section”.
The NGO cited a Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Ifedayo Abegunde v. The Ondo State House of Assembly and argued that the only justification for members of the National Assembly to lawfully defect from their parties lies in the existence of a division in their parties or a merger between their parties and others.
The affected lawmakers listed in the suit were 17 senators and 37 members of the House of Representatives, who defected from the parties, on which platforms they rode to the Legislature.
They include Saraki and Dogara, who defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Godswill Akpabio, who left the PDP for the APC. Others also left either the APC or the PDP for other parties.
Besides Saraki and Dogara, other senators also affected by the suit include Godswill Akpabio, Dino Melaye, Shehu Sani, Rabiu Kwawanso, Barnabas Gemade and Lanre Tejuosho.
Beside the 54 lawmakers, the plaintiff also listed the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), the INEC, the Deputy Senate President and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives as defendants.
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