Senate
President, Bukola Saraki, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, as well as other
Senate officials on Monday shunned a scheduled hearing in a suit seeking their
removal from office.
The
removal of Saraki and the other principal officers is being sought on the
grounds of alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Orders 2015 used for the
conduct of their elections shortly after the proclamation of the 8th Senate on
June 9.
Plaintiffs
in the suit, which is before the Federal High Court in Abuja, are Senators Abu
Ibrahim, Kabir Marafa, Ajayi Boroffice, Olugbenga Ashafa and Suleiman Hunkuni,
all supporters of Senator Ahmed Lawan for the Senate presidency eventually won
by Saraki.
The
six defendants in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/651/2015, are Saraki, Ekweremadu,
the National Assembly and the Clerks of both the National Assembly and the
Senate.
None
of the defendants was represented by their lawyers when the matter came up on
Monday before Justice Adeniyi Ademola, to whom the case was re-assigned after
he took over from Justice Gabriel Kolawole as the vacation judge of the Abuja
Division of the Federal High Court.
While
delivering a ruling during Monday’s proceedings, Justice Ademola noted that the
choice of Monday for the hearing of the plaintiffs’ motion on notice seeking an
order restraining the Senate from going ahead to constitute its standing and ad
hoc committees was with the consent of lawyers to the parties to the suit.
However,
the plaintiffs’ counsel, Chief Mamman Osuman (SAN), withdrew the motion on
notice during the proceedings, saying the essence of the application had been
overtaken by event with some of the committees already constituted.
Justice
Ademola, while striking out the motion on notice in a short ruling, noted that
the application contained the same set of prayers that were in the plaintiffs’
ex parte application earlier dismissed by Justice Kolawole.
The
plaintiffs had anchored their suit on the use of alleged illegitimate and
unconstitutional Senate Standing Orders 2015 to conduct the election of the
current leadership of the Senate on June 9.
The
plaintiffs alleged that the Senate Standing Orders 2015 was “contrived” from
the amendment of the 2011 version of the Orders without following its (the 2011
edition’s) relevant provisions and those of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria.
They
argued that the said amendment was in breach of the “prescriptive procedures”
stipulated by the extant provisions of section 60 of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Rule 110(1), (2), (3), (4) and (5) of
the Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended).
They
therefore contended that the election of the current leadership of the Senate
and other proceedings based on the unconstitutional Orders was null and void.
The
senators are seeking, among other prayers, the declaration of the Senate
Standing Orders 2015 as null and void for being a product of an alleged
illegitimate and unconstitutional amendment of the 2011 version of the standing
orders.
They
also want the court to nullify the amended order as well as the election of
Saraki as the Senate President and that of Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate
President, for being products of the alleged illegal orders.
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