Two lawmakers, Senator Rafiu Adebayo and
Senator Isa Misau, have sued the Attorney-General of the Federation,
the police, the Department of State Services, the Senate and seven
others in order to stop the attempts to remove Senate President Bukola
Saraki....
Senators Adebayo and Misau, who are
supporters of Saraki, instituted the fresh court action marked
FHC/ABJ/CS/872/2018 before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on
Monday.
Other defendants in the suit are: the
majority and deputy majority leaders of the Senate, the Clerk of the
Senate, the Deputy Clerk of the Senate, the Senate President, the Deputy
Senate President and the Deputy Minority Leader.
In the originating summons filed on
their behalf by Mahmud Magaji (SAN), the plaintiffs want the Federal
High Court to determine whether in view of the provisions of Section
50(1) (a) and (2) of the 1999 Constitution, Saraki, who defected to
another political party as a result of the division in his former party,
can be made to vacate his office other than in accordance with Section
50 of the constitution.
Adebayo and Misau, who represent
Kwara-South and Bauchi-Central senatorial districts respectively, also
want the court to determine whether Saraki can be compelled to vacate
his office on the grounds that he is not a member of the political party
with a majority of senators in the Senate in view of the combined
reading of Section 50 of the constitution and Order 3 Rule 8 of the
Senate Standing Orders.
The court was also urged to determine
whether the Senate President could be said to have vacated his office by
virtue of Section 50(2) of the constitution when he had not ceased to
be a member of the Senate or the Senate dissolved.
In a motion on notice filed along with
the originating summons, the plaintiffs prayed the court for an order of
interlocutory injunction restraining all the defendants (except the
Senate, Senate President and Deputy Senate President) jointly and
severally either by themselves, their agents, servants and privies from
unlawfully removing the Senate President pending the hearing and
determination of the substantive suit.
They also prayed the court for another
order of interlocutory injunction restraining the AGF and the
Inspector-General of Police from unlawfully interfering with the lawful
legislative duties of the Senate President pending the hearing and
determination of their originating summons.
Besides, the plaintiffs asked for an
order of interlocutory injunction stopping the IG and the DSS from
harassing, intimidating, arresting or detaining the President of the
Senate in respect of the lawful exercise of his duties pursuant to
Section 50(1) of the constitution and another order directing parties in
the case to maintain status quo pending the determination of the
substantive matter.
The motion was predicated on seven
grounds amongst which were that the agents of the IG and DSS had taken
steps to flagrantly breach the provisions of Section 50 by employing
their agents to disrupt the plenary of the Senate without recourse to
the said provisions.
Another grounds were that the
constitutional provision of removal of the Senate President does not
empower the AGF, police and DSS to unlawfully interfere with the
legislative duties of the Senate by causing a blockade at the premises
of the National Assembly complex or using their agents to disrupt the
lawful duties of the Senate.
In a 13-paragraph affidavit in support
of the motion on notice and deposed to by Senator Isah Misau, he averred
that the Senate was a body recognized and established by the 1999
Constitution vested with powers of making laws for the good governance
and well-being of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The deponent averred that the Senate
held a plenary sitting between July 24 and 27 and that it was presided
over by its President and that at the end of the sitting members
adjourned till September 25.
Misau claimed that the All Progressives
Congress as a platform for the Senate President had been bedeviled by
crises resulting in divisions and factionalisation at the federal, state
and local government levels.
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