Justice Obiora Egwuatu of a Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, vacated his order declaring the suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan by the Senate as null and void.
Justice Egwuatu vacated the March 4 order, after listening to the arguments of counsel for the plaintiff and lawyers to the defendants in the suit.
The court had on March 4, granted five reliefs sought by the Kogi Central Senator, including Order Number Four which declared any action taken by the defendants during the pendency of the suit as null, void and of no effect whatsoever.
Egwuatu had granted the five prayers after Sanusi Musa, SAN, who appeared for Akpoti-Uduaghan moved the ex-parte motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/384/2025.
The plaintiff had in the motion ex-parte, sued the Clerk of the National Assembly (NASS), the Senate, President of the Senate, and Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Code of Conduct Senator Neda Imasuen as 1st to 4th defendants respectively.
Among reliefs sought was an order of interim injunction restraining the Senate’s committee headed by Imasuem from proceeding with the purported investigation against her for alleged misconduct sequel to the events that occurred at the plenary on February 20, pursuant to the referral by the Senate on February 25, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction, among others.
However, the Senate, in a motion on notice filed on March 17 by its lawyer, Chikaosolu Ojukwu, SAN, sought an order setting aside Order Number Four in the enrolled ex-parte order made by Justice Egwuatu against the defendants.
Ojukwu urged the court to vacate the order in the interest of fair hearing.
While citing Section 36(1) of the Constitution, the lawyer argued that order number four was interlocutory in nature and ought not to have been granted by the court.
He added that the said Order Number Four was vague, ambiguous and lacking in specificity as it did not specify which of the parties it was targeted at or referring to and what actions it related to.
He also argued that the order, in the form in which it was granted, “refers to all actions of whatever nature, without any limitation, taken by both the plaintiff/ respondent and the defendants.”
Ojukwu said enforcing the said order, as granted, would result in a constitutional crisis and anarchy, as the entire legislative duties of the Senate would be made to grind to a halt.
“The order offends the doctrine of separation of powers as enshrined in Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This honourable court lacks the jurisdiction to restrain parliament from conducting its constitutional duties,” he said.
He, therefore, urged the court to hold that the entire proceedings of March 4 upon which that breach occurred was in nullity.
Responding, counsel to the Clerk, Charles Yoila, Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN, who appeared for Akpabio and Umeh Kalu, SAN, who represented Imasuen, aligned themselves with Ojukwu’s argument.
But counsel, who appeared for Natasha, Michael Numa, SAN, disagreed with their submissions and urged the court to dismiss the defence application and exercise its disciplinary powers on them for alleged contempt of the valid court order.
In a short ruling, the court agreed with the defence and set aside Order Number Four from the prayers earlier granted and subsequently adjourned till March 25 for hearing of all pending applications.
Meanwhile, the Kogi State Residents Electoral Commissioner, Gabriel Longpet, has denied any knowledge of a process to recall Senator Natasha.
When contacted for fact-checking by THISDAY, the electoral official, who was in better stead to know, denied knowledge of any such development outside of the swirling rumours.
“I am not aware of any recall process, apart from the unconfirmed reports flying about on social media adding that no one has contacted me about any recall in any part of the state” Longpet said.
Natasha’s constituents were reported to have initiated a recall process, passing a vote of no confidence in her representation.
It was gathered that the recall process, witnessed in Okehi Local Government Area on Wednesday, saw a large number of the electorate on queue to register their support for the recall process.
The recall process was expected to take two days across all polling units in the five local governments of Kogi Central. During this time, constituents would be required to sign a petition calling for the senator’s recall.
However THISDAY gathered that the constituents were tricked in appending their signature after a town crier went round Okehi on Wednesday inviting people for empowerment.
But on getting there, they were asked to submit their voter’s card number in exchange for two thousand Naira.
Alex Enumah and Ibrahim Oyewale
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