By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA—Justice David Okorowo of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has summoned the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, to appear before him on September 17 to explain to the court why he went ahead and sworn in one Mr Emmanuel Obot as the bona fide representative for the Uyo federal constituency of Akwa Ibom State, despite a subsisting court order restraining him from doing so.

The High Court had on June 17, vide an ex-parte injunction, restrained the speaker and the clerk of the House of Representatives from swearing in Obot into the Green Chambers, pending the hearing and determination of a motion on notice filed before it by one Etim Bassey, challenging the ruling of an Appeal Tribunal
in Calabar that sacked him from the House of Representatives.

Justice Abdullahi Kufarati, who presided over the matter at first instance, had ab-initio, ordered all the parties in the matter, as well as the leadership of the House of Reps to maintain the status-quo until the action before the court
was determined.

The order was made after Etim, who took the matter to court, informed the High Court judge that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, while under the leadership of its erstwhile Acting Chairman, Mr Solomon Soyebi, had on
June 7, issued fresh certificate of return to the defendant, barely few days after the one issued to him was cancelled on the premise that it was given in error.

He had prayed the presiding judge to preserve the ‘Res’ of his subsisting motion on notice by prohibiting the speaker and clerk of the House of Reps from swearing-in Obot in his place pending the determination of his suit, a request
that was granted.