Court says PDP can remove Tambuwal as Speaker …asks party to commence legal action The ongoing move to sack the Speaker of the House of Representatives , Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, yesterday got a boost as a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja issued an order permitting the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to commence a legal action meant to oust him from office. Justice R. B Mohammed, who gave the PDP the green light to commence a mandamus action against the Speaker however ordered that Tambuwal himself should be duly notified of the suit to enable him appear to show cause why an order to compel him to sack himself or empowering his deputy to sack him from office must not be issued. Specifically, the court ordered that all the processes in the case must be served on the Speaker and other respondents in the case through the Office of the Clerk to the House of Representatives . Respondents in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/ CS/901/2014 are the Office of the Speaker of House of Representatives and the Deputy Speaker. Spirited moves by a member of the inner bar and senior counsel to Tambuwal, Mr A. Magaji, SAN, who was in court to frustrate hearing in the case yielded no fruit. Tambuwal was elected into the National Assembly on the platform of the PDP to represent Kebbe/Tambuwal constituency in the House of Representatives before he later emerged the Speaker. But on October 28, this year, while his tenure is still running, the Speaker defected to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, and adjourned sitting of the House for more than a month. The PDP and the Presidency however contended that by the defection, Tambuwal had lost his seat at the House of Representatives , citing section 68 (1) (g) of the 1999 constitution as reason. The section reads: “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected.” But instead of going to court to declare his seat vacant, the executive moved against Tambuwal with the Inspector-Gener al of Police, IGP, withdrawing his security details. The action of the IG sparked a row. But last week, the PDP approached the Federal High Court with a motion exparte for leave to commence a mandamus action compelling the Speaker to convene a sitting of the House and declare his seat vacant by himself in accordance with the provision of section 68 (2) of the 1999 constitution. In the alternative, the PDP is asking for an order empowering Tambuwal’s Deputy, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha to perform the function of declaring the seat vacant in the absence of the Speaker doing so. In the application, the PDP argued that under Section 68(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 Constitution (as amended), the 1st respondent (Speaker) has a mandatory duty to bring into effect the provisions of Section 68 (1) (g) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 Constitution (as amended) where the relevant facts come to, or are within the knowledge of the Speaker The party insisted that Tambuwal is aware that he has left the PDP and joined the APC by his open declaration on the floor of the House on October 28, 2014. The party said he had even procured the governorship nomination form of the APC. Chief Mike Ahamba brought the ex parte application on behalf of the PDP. The matter has been adjourned to December 12, for hearing.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 09:27:30 +0000
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