The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ike Ekeremadu

  • Court sacks Ondo lawmaker as PDP candidate

    A Federal High Court sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital on Tuesday ordered a federal lawmaker, Bode Ayorinde to stop parading himself as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the forthcoming House of Representatives election.

    Ayorinde, who defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC)last year is the incumbent member of the House of Representatives, representing Owo/Ose Federal Constituency of Ondo State.

    The court ordered the National Secretariat of the PDP to remove Ayorinde ‘ s name and send the name of Mr. Sodiq Obanoyen to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)as the candidate of the party.

    Obanoyen was said to have won the House of Representatives primary in the Owo/Ose Federal constituency, held in Owo in October, 2018.

    He reportedly scored 107 votes while Ayorinde polled 73 votes.

    However, the party sent Ayorinde’s name to the INEC as the party’s candidate for the election.

    Obanoyen was disqualified by the party.

    Having not satisfied with the development, Obanoyen challenged the action of the party at the court.

    Defendants are the PDP, the chairman of the Ondo State PDP Clement Faboyede, Ayorinde and the INEC. as first, second, third and fourth defendants.

    Counsel to the third defendant ( Ayorinde), Mr. Tolu Babaleye, in one of his prayers, asked the court to uphold the disqualification of the plaintiff on the grounds that the Obanoyen did not resign his appointment as a legislative aide to the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekeremadu before obtaining the form to contest,saying the action was said to be against the party’s election guidelines.

    The plaintiff’s legal team, led by Remi Olatubora, however, presented the evidence that showed the appropriate resignation of its client to the court.

    In his judgement,Justice Abdul Dogo struck out the prayers of the first and third defendants for lack of merit.

    Read Also; Appeal Court to hear CJN’s appeal Thursday

    The court also held that the plaintiff duly tendered his resignation letter before obtaining the form and thereby qualified to contest the election.

    According to him,” The first defendant ( PDP) is hereby ordered to forward the name of the plaintiff to the fourth defendant as the candidate of the first defendant in the election.

    “Also, the third defendant ( Ayorinde) is hereby restrained from parading himself as the candidate of the first defendant in the election.

    ” The fourth defendant is hereby restrained from recognising the third defendant as the candidate of the first defendant in the election.”

    Olatubora hailed the court’s judgement, saying the judgment confirmed that the judiciary was still working in the country,

    Counsel to Ayorinde, Tolu Babaleye said he would need to consult his client to determine the next line of action on the matter.

  • Don’t derail Nigeria’s democracy, Southwest PDP urges Buhari

    The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the Southwest on Tuesday urged the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to initiate actions against moves to derail democracy in Nigeria.

    The party in a statement by its Zonal Publicity Secretary, Ayo Fadaka criticized the manner ‘despotic’ democracy under President Muhammadu was gaining ascendancy.

    It reads “The Police action taken again the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and his Deputy, Ike Ekeremadu clearly is an abuse of the fundamental human rights of the duo and also an abuse of power privileges.

    “No excuse or reason can justify the prosecution of this cheap and pedestrian action; these gentlemen are no criminals that should be hounded by the police who should clearly devote their time squarely to ridding our nation of the many criminal elements that torture the citizenry daily”.

    According to the statement, the police invitation to Saraki was in furtherance of the petty attempt to rope him into the now famous Offa robbery, stressing that President Buhari and his handlers should know that irrespective of concoctions in this regard, the eminent and illustrious background of Saraki will never make them to stick.

    PDP said” We know this smokescreen is to hound him because of the obvious fact that 15 Senators on Tuesday abandoned the sinking APC ship for the PDP.

    “The choice of political party is an inalienable right of every citizen and no power can hold those who have chosen to leave back in the APC.

    Read Also: Oyo senators deny decamping to PDP

    “President Buhari must also realize that he has since dropped his beret and jackboots, therefore, only persuasion and sincerity of purpose are required to populate any Party”.

    The opposition party congratulated the fifteen Senators for taking the bold step to dump a party that exhibits absolute intolerance, incoherence and incompetence in the administration of our dear nation.

    “Nigeria today is tottering dangerously on a precipice on account of these factors; a nation that was enjoying near absolute peace in 2015 is experiencing mayhem of differing proportions across board.

    “The APC’s government of President Buhari has sentenced over 83 percent of our population to penury and life has become so unbearable”.

    “Nigerians today need a new lease of life and therefore call on many still hibernating in APC to bolt out of the Party now reputed for its failed promises, deceit and incompetence.

    “We wish to point out that there exists a great danger to our democracy and this is apparent by the many attacks on perceived opponents or enemies of the Buhari administration, democracy is not the same with despotism.

    The party noted that Constitution must be respected, while institutions like the National Assembly and Judiciary too must equally be respected.

    It noted that if truly this action against Saraki and Ekeremadu was being taken to forestall a sitting of the Senate with a view to preventing scores of APC Senators from decamping, it is pedestrian and disappointing.

    The statement recalled that former President Jonathan experienced similar actions in 2013 and exhibited maturity by taking all in his strides, urging President Buhari to follow his worthy example.

  • Suspension: Senate okays Ndume’s resumption Wednesday

    Suspension: Senate okays Ndume’s resumption Wednesday

    The Senate rose from a closed session Tuesday to give nod to Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume to resume sitting Wednesday.

    Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu who presided, announced the resolution of the upper chamber that its former leader, Ndume, should take back his seat among his colleagues having served out his six months suspension.

    Ekweremadu said that the resolution was without prejudice to the legal tussle surrounding Ndume’s suspension.

    Unconfirmed reports on Monday said that Ndume may not be allowed to resume sitting because he is in court with the Senate over his suspension.

    Those behind the plot to bar the Borno South lawmaker from the chamber said that it would be a misnomer to allow a member who is challenging the authority of the institution he belongs to in court to sit in the same chamber.

    Tuesday’s resolution was however seen as a welcome development by many of the lawmakers who saw it as part of the ongoing peace initiative in the chamber.

    The Senate had on Monday filed an appeal against the judgment of the Federal High Court, delivered today, 10th of November, 2017 which declared the suspension of Ndume null, void and of no consequence.

    Ndume had told reporters in Abuja that he was prepared to resume sitting on November 15, 2017 at the expiration of his suspension.

  • Melaye’s recall: Saraki, Ekweremadu slams Kogi Attorney General

    Melaye’s recall: Saraki, Ekweremadu slams Kogi Attorney General

    The recall process for the senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye, got messier on Tuesday with the Senate President, Dr Olusola Saraki and Deputy President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu taking on the state governor and its Attorney General.

    Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu, fired the first shot when he drew the attention of his colleagues to a three page advertorial by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Kogi State, Ibrahim Sanni Muhammed disparaging his (Ekweremadu’s) contribution on the recall process.
    Muhammed noted in the advertorial that Ekweremadu’s submission that Melaye’s recall was an exercise in futility was made in bad faith.
    The Kogi Attorney General also said that it was unbecoming of Ekweremadu to have said that “They are just wasting precious time because the constitution is clear on what should happen. It is possible that the attorney general of Kogi has not advised them properly. If he had done that, I am sure they would have applied their time to more meaningful ventures in the state. The process of recall is the equivalent of impeachment of executive positions.”
    The Attorney General signed off his advertorial by saying “Finally, I must put on record that contrary to the legal opinion of Senator Ekweremadu on the role of the Senate in the recall process, the Senate has no role whatsoever in the recall exercise than to receive the Certificate under the hand of the Chairman of INEC stating that the provisions 69 of the Constitution have been complied with: See Sections 68(h) and 69 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).”
    Muhammed added that “Indeed by the provisions of the INEC regulations for the recall of a legislator, a legislator stands recalled upon INEC’s confirmation of a majority vote in favour of the recall.”
    But Ekweremadu who came under Order 43 (personal explanation) of the Senate standing rule insisted that the Muhammed was ill informed and should have advised those behind the recall process how near impossible it is to recall a member of the National Assembly.
    He noted that contrary to the position of the Kogi chief law officer, the Senate has a major role to play in the recall of senator and in fact final say in the recall process.
    Ekweremadu said: “This morning my attention was drawn to a three page advertorial by AG of Kogi State (in a national newspaper.)
    “He (attorney general) was responding to my contribution on the floor of the Senate when Senator Melaye informed the house of his constituents’ effort to recall him.
    “I urged them to apply their time to more useful venture in view of the strenuous nature of the recall process and I said the AG may not have advised them properly.
    “I understand that every page (of the advert) costs about 700,000 and five other papers carried the advert and we are talking of about N12m of Kogi money sent.
    “I would have ignored him but because of his statement in the final paragraph stating that “I must put on record that contrary to the legal opinion of Sen. Ekweremadu on the role of the Senate in recall process, the Senate has no role whatsoever in the recall exercise than to receive the certificate from the Chairman of INEC stating that the provisions of Section 69 of the Constitution has been complied with.
    “Indeed by the provisions of the INEC regulation for the recall of a legislator, a legislator stands recalled upon INEC’s confirmation of a majority vote in favour of the recall.
    “He is saying that the Senate has no role. I stand by what I said the other day and I would like to take him to Section 68(1H) and (2) show the role of the senate, which he says has no role.
    “Section 68(1H) reads, “ the President of the Senate or, as the case may be, the Speaker of the House of Representatives receives a certificate under the hand of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission stating that the provisions of section 69 of this Constitution have been complied with in respect of the recall of that member.
    “That was the section the Attorney General was referring to but he mischievously refused to state the provisions of section 2 or probably out of Ignorance, he did not put Section 68(2) which states:
    “The President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives, as the case may be, shall give effect to the provisions of subsection (1) of this section, so however that the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives or a member shall first present evidence satisfactory to the House concerned that any of the provisions of that subsection has become applicable in respect of that member.
    “I don’t know how he came to conclusion that we don’t have a role. I stand by my position. So, I pity the people of Kogi that hired this type AG. It is unfortunate that we are paying a public servant and he is unable to do a simple work of looking at the constitution.
    “Let me emphasise that this 68(2) is not part of the amendment we made to the Constitution.
    “This has been the original provision of the Constitution, so we did not effect it. It has nothing to do with Dino or whosoever. We inherited this provision since 1999. It has been there.
    “So, for him not to know about it I don’t know where he went to law schools anyway, because if he has been properly educated, he would have been conversant with the basic provisions of the constitution.
    “I also don’t know his age at the bar but I believe I am his senior at the bar and I expect him to show some respect to his senior because that is what we were taught at the law school.
    “For the avoidance of doubt, I also believe I have better credentials than himself in the legal profession.
    “I was a teacher and my specialization was Constitutional law. I also practiced law.
    “I have a doctorate degree in law and my interest is also Constitutional Law.
    “I am also the Chairman Constitution review committee of this National Assembly since 2010. So, if I am taking about the constitution, I know what I am talking about.
    “I expect the Ag, instead of him displaying his ignorance to simply call me and I will educate him on the correct position of the law.
    “So I take exception to this and I believe that he needs to refund the amount spent on this to the people of Kogi.
    “So I call on the Kogi House of Assembly to institute an inquiry on who paid for this and find a way of getting the money back to pay the salaries of the people of Kogi state.
    “Kogi should constitute an enquiry to know who paid the money.”
    Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki who did not allow any debate on the issue concurred with Ekweremadu.
    Saraki said, “The Deputy President of the Senate came under Order 43 and according to our rules it cannot be further debated, but honestly I am concerned with the caliber of people holding very senior position.
    “Even those of us who only have association with the legal profession by being married to one but we have learnt over the years to know that this is straight forward.
    “What is even more disturbing and irresponsible is how you can spend N10 million on advert. I have been a governor, when you file money for advert it is a difficult issue.
    “This pretty much shows that government is truly is behind the entire process, when a government can go about and take an advert on an issue like this.
    “There is a need for people on appointed or elected to positions to show some level of responsibility.
    “This is a very simple matter in the constitution. You did not write it neither did you invent it, so DSP, you were just reading it as it.
    “As you said it is very unfortunate for the people of Kogi State,” Saraki stated.

  • Makarfi, sheriff congratulate Ekeremadu at 55

    Makarfi, sheriff congratulate Ekeremadu at 55

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has congratulated Deputy President of the Senate, Mr Ike Ekweremadu, on his 55th birth anniversary.

    In separate messages, National Chairman of the party, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff and the Chairman, National Caretaker Committee, Sen. Ahmed Makarfi, on Friday in Abuja, felicitated with Ekweremadu.

    Makarfi, in a statement by the committee’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Dayo Adeyeye, commended Ekweremadu for his “outstanding contributions to the development of the legislature and the country”.

    He described him as a “fighter for good causes”.

    “We are indeed proud of his achievements as one of the pillars of the PDP, working with all the stakeholders to revive, rejuvenate and move the party to greater heights.

    “We believe in his leadership qualities and urge him to continue with his services to humanity,” Makarfi added, and wished Ekweremadu good health, long life and more years of fruitful service to Nigeria.

    Similarly, in a statement by Dr Cairo Ojougboh, his deputy, Sheriff said Ekweremadu was a true democrat and a man of honour.

    Sheriff said that the PDP was very proud of the way Ekweremadu had carried himself in the Senate.

    “He brought a wealth of experience into the 8th Assembly.

    “He is a stabilizing force in the Senate, who has helped to streamline difficult issues in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.”(NAN)