By Levinus  Nwabughiogu

A controversy of some sort is raging in the National Assembly over the Appeal Court  judgment of November 1 that  ruled in favour of 10 sacked   federal lawmakers from Katsina State. Will frayed nerves be calmed?

Date was January 12, 2012. Target: The National Assembly.  And like a hurricane, it came in the fiercest manner sweeping through the parliament. It swept away 10 lawmakers from Katsina State who had been elected on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC.  To some people, the verdict was the  effect of a political adventure hatched by the powerful to advance their interests and influence.

The certificates of return of the lawmakers were withdrawn while 10 persons were brought to replace them. But, on Friday, November 1, 2013, luck smiled on the displaced parliamentarians who now crave to retake their seats in the National Assembly. An Appeal Court in Abuja upheld a judgment by a Federal High Court on January 13, 2013 which declared  the take- over of  their seats illegal.

The legislators include two senators and eight members of the House of Representatives namely  Sen  Abdu U Yandoma, Sen Ahmed Sani Stores, Hon Abba Sada, Hon Muntari Dandutse,  Hon Aminu Mani, Hon  Murtala Isa, Hon Musa Salisu, Hon Abdu Dankama, Hon Tasiu  Doguru and Hon Umar  K. This captures the  power-tussle between the camp of former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, and others since after the April 2011 general elections.

Genesis

A primary election that was to take place once to elect the CPC National Assembly candidates ahead of the  general elections now stretched  to one week and, within that period, four different  primary elections were  conducted with the Masari  group allegedly  continuously failing. After the primaries, the camp, on demand of CPC candidates’ names for the National Assembly elections in Katsina State, forwarded the names of  its members to  the Independent  National Electoral Commission (INEC). At this point, the 10 lawmakers approached the Federal High Court Abuja seeking  to compel INEC to recognize them. On February 25, 2011, the court ruled in their favour which enabled them to contest the elections.

Rattled by the ruling, the Masari group  headed for the Appeal Court and  later got victory.  But the 10 lawmakers  wouldn’t let  go. They journeyed up to the Supreme Court  which later ruled that no court had the jurisdiction to hear the matter.

Meanwhile, the Supreme   Court lambasted the lawmakers loyal to Masari who, at  that point, asked the court to join them in the suit earlier filed by the former Speaker. According to  Sada, one of the axed lawmakers fighting   for a come back from the outside after the Appeal Court   ruling, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Alaoma Mutar,  who presided over the  case, said the lawmakers came to reap where they did not  sow. The 10 lawmakers thought the matter had ended as there was no consequential order. To them, it was a maintain-status-quo ruling. Sada, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard on the matter, last week, recalled the  event.

He said:  “The CPC leadership at the national level including the Board  of Trustees had Aminu Masari as their gubernatorial candidate and his people who they wanted to contest as senators and House members but they didn’t come out openly to say ‘we  already have candidates’. They said everybody should go and seek for peoples  mandates.

We all went. We reached the grassroots. We had the people. But they continue dragging us to do one primary election or another four times within the space of one week. The first one was January 8, 2011. It was cancelled because the Masari camp was not leading. The second one was  on the 13th during which there was no primary election.

What  they did was that a top party chieftain from Abuja came to conduct the election. They didn’t conduct any primary election. They just went to home and completed the returned sheet and  allocated figures. That day, there was a meeting in the office of the Commissioner of Police in Katsina with the Director of SSS. And there, the man that came from Abuja admitted there was no primary election.

So, he was made to issue an announcement on the radio that  it will hold the next day so that people could come out.

“But the following day, the man left town  as early as 4.am. He went to General Buhari and alleged that he was given a  bribe. So, the primary election of January 14 was grounded  because the man left. We chartered an aircraft and some of our elders headed for Abuja .  Immediately they arrived, the national headquarters told them they would send somebody to Katsina on the 15th to do the primary  election. So, they sent the national vice chairman, North West , Engr. Suleiman Adamu. He was the one who conducted the January 15 primary election. And  it was the only primary election which had the presence of INEC and  security agencies and everybody participated and we won; the 10 of us.

“So, when the party announced, the man went back to  Abuja and he was said to have been asked why he declared the winners because it was alleged they still intended to impose those from the Masari camp on Katsina State. So, when they made an announcement that every state should bring INEC forms and the details of their candidates at the national headquarters, we took that of Katsina to them but they replaced our names with those from the Masari camp.

So, we went  to the Federal High Court, Abuja . On February 25, 2011, the court delivered judgment in our favour. After the judgment, INEC put our names on the ballot paper.

“We campaigned, contested and  won and returned as elected. After being retuned as elected, these people took us to about four  different courts: Two High Courts in Abuja and two in Kaduna, making it difficult for us to collect our certificates of return. All the same, the injunctions they were seeking  were discharged and we collected our certificates of return. We  were sworn- in, in June,  2011 when the National Assembly took off.

The only thing they succeeded in was  making most of us not to attend courses for elected members because you need to have your certificates before you attend. We were inaugurated but the PDP we defeated took us to election tribunal in September.  The tribunal said our election was nullified and another one  should hold within  three months because we were not sponsored by a political party. We  appealed in the Court of Appeal which is the highest body in the electoral  matter. The Appeal Court said  the tribunal was incompetent to nullify our election on the basis of  pre-election matter”.

INEC and CPC leadership

According to Sada, the Legal  Department of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ‘did the unthinkable’. The embattled lawmaker said INEC ascribed a unilateral interpretation to the Supreme Court which had earlier ruled that no court had the competent jurisdiction to handle the matter. He accused the Masari camp of prevailing on INEC to withdraw their  certificates of return and issued same to its men who were later sworn in by the National  Assembly.

The  group of 10 lawmakers headed back for the Federal High Court seeking interpretation to the action taken by INEC wondering if such action was tenable in the absence of any consequential order from any court.

“The gubernatorial candidate (Masari) made an appeal to Supreme Court.  On the 17th of October, 2011, there was a ruling by the Supreme Court that he and his group could not join the case.

The court called them interlopers who wanted to reap where they did not sow. On December 16, 2011,  the Supreme ruled that no court has the jurisdiction to entertain the case. So, they did not give any consequential order. But these people went to the media with a lot of campaigns that we had been sacked. They also went to INEC which withdrew our certificates.

“We  rushed to court and tried to get an injunction. But by then, the courts had gone on Christmas vacation and then the fuel subsidy protests. Our seats were taken illegally  because there was no  consequential order backing their certificates. The interpretation of the Supreme Court judgment was done by the INEC legal consultant and they have no  rights whatsoever to interpret the  judgment.”

‘Our victory’

Sada said  their case at the Federal High Court to stop the “illegal” lawmakers from occupying their seats paid off  early this year but was not honored by INEC and the National Assembly who refused to return them.

He said: “After they took our seats,  we instituted a case. That  was on Friday January 11, 2013, there was a declarative  judgment from the Federal  High Court that was not honored. The judgment said that INEC was wrong in issuing certificates to the other camp. It was illegal; that the House ought  not to have even sworn them in; that they should immediately vacate and that we should take the immediate repossession of our seats.

But this judgment was not honored by INEC and the National Assembly. But the people appealed in the Court of Appeal. So, by last Friday, the first of November, we got a judgment by the  five- man panel set up by the Appeal   Court to determine our case. In that  judgment, they did not only support the Federal High Court judgment,  they reaffirmed it.

“They said that INEC and the National Assembly acted  ultra-vires; they said  these people were issued certificates illegally because it  was not supported by any order from any court of competent jurisdiction”.

Appeal Court ruling

Justice Jimmy Bada, who led four other justices to hear the appeal, ruled that the High Court was right to have dismissed the objection raised by the appellants (the lawmakers issued with the   certificates of return).

Bada said: “There is no court of competent jurisdiction that declared  the appellants as winners in the election”.

Stay of execution

But for a controversial  application for a stay of execution filed by the Masari backed lawmakers which INEC and the National Assembly leadership relied upon, the 10 lawmakers would have been recalled at the first instance of the High Court judgment.  But with the latest Appeal Court ruling which has confirmed the lower court ruling on the matter, Sada said the application is inconsequential.

Prayers

Nothing else can be acceptable to the Sada group than being allowed to repossess their seats at the National Assembly.

“We expect total compliance because there are now to court judgments saying the same thing. This one has not only rejected their appeal, it has also dismissed and also strongly reaffirmed the judgment of the lower court. The court said INEC by issuing them certificate and National Assembly by swearing them in acted ultra vires. Ultra vires means outside the known perimeters of the law. So you see they acted illegally”.

It is just like an action that has not even happened. We expect the National assembly being the highest law making body of the country to have respect for court ruling,” he said.

Brawl

The matter however took a twist on  Wednesday during a session of the House of Representatives. One of the 10,  Mani, had gone to the chambers with a friend when two of the lawmakers sacked by the Appeal Court  ruling of Friday allegedly sighted him in the chambers and asked him to leave.  When Mani resisted, it culminated in a  free-for-all.

Mani clothes were said to have been torn in the brawl that ensued while his House of Representatives membership identity card was initially  taken away from him. It took  the intervention of some APC lawmakers in the chamber for the chaotic situation to be resolved. The Minority Leader ,Femi Gbajabiamila, his deputy, Suleiman Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila, and the Deputy Minority Whip, Garba Datti, were among those who dashed to the spot to

mediate. A meeting was hurriedly convened.

A  member of the group of 10,  Funtua Muntari Dandutse, who spoke to journalists, accused

the  National Assembly of not respecting the laws they enacted.

Another of the aggrieved 10, Tasi’u Doguro (Mashi/Dutsi), said,  “This is the 13th  time we are winning court cases against our opponents. We  made sure that National Assembly and INEC were served copies of the judgment on Monday.

“We came yesterday (Tuesday); they said we  should come today (Wednesday) to take our seats. But when we came today, we were told that unless we go to Supreme Court, they will not swear us in, which means  they don’t respect the judgments of Federal High Court and Court of Appeal.

“There is a lot of political blackmail. Actually, what  is happening now in National Assembly, this issue of favouritism, is dangerous. We don’t belong to the Masari camp. Masari was a Speaker here. So they are doing him a favour. But that is very unfortunate,” he said.

But Gbajabiamila told journalists after the meeting which lasted for about 30 minutes that the House would not act until it sees the outcome of the appeal by the current lawmakers in the  Supreme Court.

While this drama goes on, all eyes are on Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman of INEC, Senate President David Mark and the Speaker of the House of Representatives,  Aminu Waziri Tambuwal on how they will act on the matter.