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A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have condemned the failure of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara to obey subsisting court judgments, sacking some members of both chambers of the National Assembly.
The CSOs, acting under the aegis of Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (NCSSR), said in Abuja on Monday that undemocratic and unlawful where heads of democratic institutions choose and pick which court judgments to obey or ignore.
NCSSR’s coordinator and Executive Director, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Clement Nwankwo said the development was worrisome and called on Saraki and Dogara to allow those, who have won their cases in court to be sworn-in, in place of those currently sacked, but still holding on to the seats on the pretext that they have appealed.
On April 7, the Supreme Court sacked Sopuluchukwu Ezeonwuka of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) representing Orumba North/South, Anambra Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
The court’s judgment was in an appeal filed against Ezeonwuka’s election by a member of the party, Chief Ben Nwanwko.
Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, in a lead judgment of a five-man panel, said Nwankwo’s name was wrongly substituted with the first respondent (Ezeonwuka) after he had obtained the nomination of the party to contest the National Assembly election.
On June 23, the Supreme Court also sacked Senator Sani Abubakar Danladi (PDP, Taraba North Senatorial District) and Herman Hembe (All Progressives Congress -APC- Vandeikya/ Konshisha Federal Constituency of Benue State in the House of Representatives.
In the case of Senator Danladi, the apex court unanimously ordered that Alhaji Shuaibu Isa Lau, be sworn-in by the Senate President or the clerk as the Senator representing Taraba North.
The court asked that Hembe be replaced by Mrs. Dorothy Mato.
There is also the case of Bassey Etim, who the court ordered to Senator Bassey Albert Akpan, currently occupying the Akwa-Ibom North East senatorial seat.
A Federal High Court, Uyo in February declared that Etim was the rightful holder of the Akwa-Ibom North East senatorial seat currently occupied by Senator Bassey Akpan in view of his (Etim’s) victory at the primaries conducted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015. The court had ordered that Etim be sworn-in to replace Akpan.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in compliance with the court order, issued a fresh Certificate of Return to Etim on March 28, while he has been waiting on the Senate to give him the go-ahead.
Akpan has, however, filed two cases in courts, one at the Federal High Court, Abuja and another at the Court of Appeal, Calabar, to stop his removal.
He is seeking the court to upturn the order of the Federal High Court, which mandated the Senate to swear in Etim.
The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, in a letter to the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, said that Etim should be sworn in because there is no order of the court stopping the exercise.
Saraki and Dogara, as at yesterday, are yet to give effect to the judgments in relation to these sacked legislators.
Nwankwo spoke in Abuja on Monday alongside Prof Mohammed Kuna (Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu) and Executive Director of Human Rights Monitor (HRM), Festus Okoye, at the public presentation of a compendium of petitions arising from the 2015 general elections, put together by NCSSR, with support by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
Nwankwo said: “We do have, at this moment specific cases of persons, particularly legislative elections, where the tribunals have given judgments and annulled the elections of persons, who had already been sworn in, and asked the Senate of House of Reps to swear in new persons, and the legislative houses are not swearing in this persons on the ostensible reasons that they are waiting for the final court to reach a decision on this.
“Once somebody, who has been sworn in, but, whose election is annulled by the tribunal, remains in office, the concern is that when person, who is challenging him files an appeal, the person sitting on that seat does not respond quickly to enough to the appeal/petition, the petition continues to drag.
“I think we have about three or four cases going on at this time. Persons, who the tribunal found to have won the elections at the tribunal level have not been able to take their seats, because the person, who are occupying the seats have appealed.
“The Senate and the House have refused to ask the persons to vacate the seats because they said they have appealed. I think the right thing for the Legislative houses to do is to swear in the person, who the court or tribunal has ruled is validly elected.
“If he goes on appeal and that person loses, I do not see the reason why that person cannot be excused and whoever has won at that final level is asked to take over.
“But, where a person is appealing a decision that has sacked him and he remains on that seat, the issue of diligent prosecution of the appeal does not become their priority. They could, in fact, remain on seat for much longer. So, we think the leadership of the Senate and the House of Reps needs to respond to this particular situation.”
He regretted the inability of existing political parties to impact positively on peoples’ lives, blaming it on the way the political party system is structured, which he said accounts for why it has not responded adequately to the demand and expectations of Nigerians.
Nwankwo noted that: “When Nigerian voted in a government in 2015, they a lot of expectations. Unfortunately, those expectations have not been met. The ruling party has not been able to guide its government to deliver on expectations that Nigerians have of it. And the opposition party has not been able to work to keep the ruling party focused and responsive to the needs of Nigerians.”
“So, we are very worried about the build ups to 2019 and the weak political party system that we have in Nigeria today. And we hope that the political parties will understand the need to strengthen the political process.”
Nwankwo said intervention like this by CSOs and their constant monitoring of political parties and political office holders are ways of strengthening the system.
Professor Kukana: said the observation on the weakness of the political parties is apt, but worrisome because the parties exploit the electorate ignorance as against enlightening them to make right choices.
He said the task of educating the electorate to make informed decisions that will result in the enthronement of quality leadership rest on the CSOs, not the greedy politicians and their weak and exploitative political parties.
Okoye, who took an overview of the compendium, expressed concern about conflicting decisions on similar issues by courts, particularly the Court of Appeal and on electoral cases.
“For me the implication of some divisions of the Court of Appeal refusing to abide the decisions of the Supreme Court, and some electoral tribunals, refusing to abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court, is very serious.
“Our judicial system and judicial process are anchored on the principle of precedent. The moment the Supreme Court laid down the law, it becomes the precedent and all other inferior courts must follow it.
“The moment courts begin to pick and choose which decision to follow, it becomes very problematic for our electoral process and undermines the judicial process.
“I think that one of the things that ought to be done, especially by the Court of Appeal, is that the moment a decision is rendered, the judgment must be circulated to other divisions of the court, so that they become aware of what a division has decided on a particular issue, to avoid this type of challenges,” Okoye said.
