A Federal High Court, Friday, struck out the suit seeking the removal of Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and 51 others from the National Assembly, following their defection last year into different political parties other than the parties that they came through to the Parliament.
Justice Okon Abang struck out the suit for being incompetent and lacking in merit on the grounds that the plaintiff had no locus standi to institute the suit.
The Legal Defence and Assistant Project (LEDAP) had approached the Court with a suit seeking to declare the seat of the affected national lawmakers vacant over their defection to the two major political parties in 2018.
Delivering Judgment yesterday in the suit filed by LEDAP, Abang held that although the plaintiff had a very good case against the defendants, however its lack of legal right in the matter robbed the court of necessary jurisdiction to deal with the case on merit.
The court agreed with counsel to Saraki and others, Mahmoud Magaji SAN, that the advocacy body that filed the suit was not competent by law to do so.
“I am persuaded to hold that though the plaintiff has a good case, promoting the rule of law, regulating the unlawful defection of legislators amongst others, the plaintiff has no locus standi to institute the suit”, Abang held.
According to Abang, the plaintiff lacked the right to institute the suit because it is not a political party, it is not INEC that monitors and regulates political party, neither is it a member of the constituencies of the defectors nor a registered political party.
Moreso, the court held that the plaintiff did not place anything before it to show that the constituencies of the affected lawmakers are aware of the suit or that it has a special interest far above that of the general public.
Abang further held that the plaintiff in filing the suit failed to involve necessary parties, such as the political parties of the defectors. Based on the forgoing, Justice Abang said: “I have no jurisdiction to determine the case on its merit because the plaintiff though has a good case but lacks locus standi in the case of the 1st, 2nd, 4th to 58th defendants, the plaintiff case is incompetent, it is struck out.”
He added that to worsen the plaintiff case, it did not obtain the fiat of the Attorney General of the Federation that would have conferred power on them to institute the legal action.
Abang held that because the plaintiff lacked locus standi, the court cannot invoke section 68 of the 1999 Constitution against the defectors and declare their seats vacant.
Earlier, while reviewing the submissions of lawyers in the matter, Justice Abang agreed with the plaintiff’s lawyer that the defectors violated the Constitution and ought to have vacated their seats, since there was no division of a kind that can warrant their defection.
Meanwhile, in the matter of Senator Godswill Akpabio, the 3rd defendant, the court held that the matter is subjudice because he ought not to have been joined in the first instance.
According to him, the Senator representing Akwa Ibom North West in the National Assembly unlike the others did not defect but moved to another party after he was expelled from the PDP.
He held that having been expelled from the PDP, he has the right to join any political party of his choice in order to continue the good work he is doing for his constituencies.
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