Vacate House of Reps Now: Federal High Court Orders the 37 Decampee PDP-to-APC Lawmakers

An Abuja Federal High Court has affirmed that the PDP decampee federal lawmakers are not in any way competent to contribute or vote in the House of Representatives.

The Court gave an order of perpetual injunction on Monday , restricting the  concerned lawmakers who defected from ruling Peoples Democratic Party to the opposition, All Progressive Congress in the National Assembly.

In his judgement, Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court , Abuja said: “The defendants are, therefore, not competent to vote or contribute to any proceedings in the Nigeria Federal House of Representatives.”

Lambasting the PDP decampee lawmakers, Justice Ademola said they no longer had any business, morally or legally, to stay in the House of Representatives and that they should honourably resign from their seats as members, having moved to another political party while their tenure had yet to expire as PDP lawmaker in the parliament.

He said, “Having critically examined the arguments and positions of counsel as well as the constitutional provisions of the federal Republic of Nigeria, it is evidently clear and totally unambiguous that the defendants were sponsored and contested for the elections under the platform of Peoples Democratic Party and consequently won the election on its platform. Therefore, it is also of the court’s opinion that their tenure has not expired and there is no division in the PDP.

"Therefore, an order of perpetual injunction is, hereby, ordered, restraining the defendants from altering or attempting to change the leadership of the House of Representative and that they are therefore, not competent to vote or contribute to any proceeding and businesses of the House of Representatives,” Mr. Ademola said.

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party  had on January 7 of this year, instituted a case seeking to bar the House of Representatives members from changing the leadership composition of the house.

Before the PDP suit, the opposition party had commenced the action following the defection of 37 lawmakers from PDP to APC which had initially gave the APC a slim majority in the House. The majority was later reversed when some APC lawmakers decamped to the PDP.

Yunus Usman, in his argument to sustain the originating summons of PDP suit, PDP counsel faulted the cross-carpeting of the lawmakers, saying that the legislators did so during the dependency of a judgment.

 Usman vehemently argued that by virtue of the October 2013 judgment of Justice Evoh Chukwu, which he claimed said there was no division in PDP, the matter had been laid to rest. He further added that by virtue of the provision of Section 68(1)(g) of the Nigerian constitution, 1999 , as amended, the decampee   lawmakers ought to have vacated their seats immediately.

While counsel to the defendants, Mamoud Magaji, had in his submission, argued that it was wrong for the PDP to have sought to restrain its former members from House activities for defecting. Other defence counsel, Niyi Akintola, Sebastian Hon, James Ocholi, Abiodun Owonikoko, and Jibril Okutepa had prayed the court to dismiss the suit.