A major truce has been brokered in the almost two years old legal dispute in the election of Bukola Saraki as the Senate President and Ike Ekwremadu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as Senate Deputy President.
The warring parties in the court action announced that they have opted for an out of court settlement to finally bring to an end, the huge and cries that greeted the senate principal officers’ election in 2015 with Saraki emerging as the arrow head.
The five aggrieved Senators who instituted the Court case yesterday told Justice Gabriel Kolawole that they have resolved to settle their internal dispute out of court in order for senate to make steady progress.
The plaintiffs who spoke through their Counsel, Mike Mamman Osuman SAN however urged Justice Kolawole to give them a short time within which to file the report of settlement for the case to be terminated.
Lawyers to Saraki, Ekweremadu and others did not object to the new peace move.
In his short ruling, Justice Kolawole directed the Senators to settle all the outstanding arrears of differences in the interest of the country.
The Judge who praised the new unity, love and the spirit of give and take in the Senate asked the parties to report back on May 8, the final outcome of their settlement for the suit to be struck out.
Plaintiffs in the suit are Senators Abu Ibrahim, Kabiru Garba Marafa, Robert Ajayi Boroffice, Bareehu Olugbenga Ashafa and Suleiman Othman Hunkuyu
They had sued Saraki, Ekweremadu and four others seeking that the election of Saraki and Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy respectively be set aside because the Senate Standing Order used for the election was forged.
Saraki had in his preliminary objection to the suit asked the court to throw it out on the ground that he was elected Senate President unopposed by his colleagues.
He also claimed that the five senators have no basis to complain against the election because they never aspired to the office or have the mandate of other 104 senators to institute the suit.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola who first heard the case was petitioned by Ekweremadu at the verge of delivering judgment on the ground that the judge was biased against him due to external influence from Lagos APC state government that made wife of the judge, Tolulope Adeniyi Ademola, the Head of Service of Lagos to do their alleged bidding.
The case file was withdrawn from Justice Ademola on the strength of the petition by the Chief Judge, Justice Ibrahim Auta and re-assigned to Justice Chukwu to start afresh.
However, following the death of Justice Stephen Evoh Chukwu, the case was reassigned to Justice Kolawole from where the out of court settlement is now being sought.
