Nigeria: Court Orders Ex-Speaker Dogara to Vacate Seat Over Defection

Justice Donatus Okorowo of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has ordered the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara to vacate his seat as a member of the House of Representatives for defection.

Justice Okorowo ordered the immediate sack of Dogara who represents Dass, Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro Federal Constituency of Bauchi State for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC).

The judge held that Dogara cannot continue to occupy the seat in the ninth Assembly because his defection violated Section 68(1) (g) of the constitution.
Okorowo in a judgment in the suit seeking the removal of Dogara over his defection agreed with the submission of the PDP (plaintiff) that by defecting from the party that sponsored him to the ninth National Assembly before the expiration of his tenure, Dogara ought to vacate the seat as he was no longer qualified to partake in the activities of the lower chamber.

The judge, who held that the action of the lawmaker is prohibited by law, agreed that the aim of Section 68(1)(g) was to check political prostitution among the legislators.
“The judgment is therefore given in favour of the plaintiffs I hereby granted the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs,” he declared.
PDP and one of its members in Bauchi State had, in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1060/20, sued Dogara, the speaker of the House of Representatives, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the APC as 1st to 4th defendants respectively.

Justice Okorowo had, earlier in another judgment, dismissed the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/883/30 and filed by Incorporated Trustees of United Global Resources for Peace Organisation against Dogara and five others on the grounds that the group lacked locus standi to institute the matter.
Judgments, in the two separate suits filed against Dogara, were stalled due to the FHC’s Easter vacation which began on April 8 and will end April 25.

The PDP and the group had asked the court to remove Dogara as member representing Dass, Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro Federal Constituency of Bauchi State, over his defection to APC.
Dogara had, on July 24, 2020, defected from the PDP to the APC when he submitted a resignation letter to the Chairman of the Bogoro ‘C’ Ward in Bauchi State.

Alex Enumah in Abuja

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