A Federal High Court in Abuja has
rejected a prayer by five senators opposed to the emergence of Bukola Saraki as
the Senate President to stop the upper legislative chamber from constituting
its standing and ad hoc committees.
The five plaintiffs in the suit
marked FHC/ABJ/CS/651/2015 – Senators Abu Ibrahim, Kabir Marafa, Ajayi
Boroffice, Olugbenga Ashafa and Suleiman Hunkuni – made the request in an ex
parte application which was moved by their lawyer Chief Mamman Osuman (SAN), on
Tuesday.
They had anchored their ex parte
application 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).
In their ex parte application
supported by an affidavit of urgency, the plaintiffs had on Tuesday urged the
court to stop the constitution of the Senate committees pending the hearing and
determination of their separate application for interim injunction.
But Justice Gabriel Kolawole in
his ruling dismissed the ex parte application, holding that the urgency
attached to it was self-induced.
This, the judge held, was because
the plaintiffs had been aware of the alleged use of the illegitimate standing
orders since June 9, 2015 but only chose to file the ex parte application dated
on July 27, which was barely 24 hours to resumption of the Senate from its
about one month recess.
The judge also held that the
court would hardly intervene in a matter relating to the application or
misapplication of the internal rules of the Senate or the legislature when such
action did not amount to “subtantial infraction” of the provisions of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He held that in matters relating to
disputes over the “the decision reached by a majority of the members of the
Senate”, aggrieved members of the arm of government could only seek a redress
by mobilising their colleagues to reverse such decision.
He held that in various appellate
courts’ decisions, courts had been warned “to be wary” in intervening in such
internal legislative activities, let alone granting an order to restrain the
activities of that arm of government at the stage of an ex parte hearing.
“In the light of the above analysis,
I will be unable to grant the ex parte application dated July 24 and only filed
on July 27, 2015 by only five out of the 109 senators constitutionally elected
to the upper legislative chamber,” Justice Kolawole ruled.
He therefore ordered the plaintiffs
to serve the motion on notice seeking the same prayer contained in their ex
parte application on the defendants.
The judge adjourned hearing of
the motion on notice till August 5, adding that after the hearing and upon
service of the defendants with the processes of the main suit, he would return
the case file to the Chief Judge.
Copyright PUNCH.
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