A Federal High Court in Abuja has
rejected a prayer by five senators opposed to the emergence of Bukola
Saraki as the Senate President to stop the upper legislative chamber
from constituting its standing and ad hoc committees.
The five plaintiffs in the suit marked
FHC/ABJ/CS/651/2015 – Senators Abu Ibrahim, Kabir Marafa, Ajayi
Boroffice, Olugbenga Ashafa and Suleiman Hunkuni – made the request in
an ex parte application which was moved by their lawyer Chief Mamman
Osuman (SAN), on Tuesday.
They had anchored their ex parte
application on the use of alleged illegitimate and unconstitutional
Senate Standing Orders 2015 to conduct the election of the current
leadership of the Senate on June 9.
The
plaintiffs alleged that the Senate Standing Orders 2015 was “contrived”
from the amendment of the 2011 version of the Orders without following
its (the 2011 edition’s) relevant provisions and those of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
They argued that the said amendment was
in breach of the “prescriptive procedures” stipulated by the extant
provisions of section 60 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Rule 110(1), (2), (3), (4) and (5) of the
Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended).
In their ex parte application supported
by an affidavit of urgency, the plaintiffs had on Tuesday urged the
court to stop the constitution of the Senate committees pending the
hearing and determination of their separate application for interim
injunction.
But Justice Gabriel Kolawole in his
ruling dismissed the ex parte application, holding that the urgency
attached to it was self-induced.
This, the judge held, was because the
plaintiffs had been aware of the alleged use of the illegitimate
standing orders since June 9, 2015 but only chose to file the ex parte
application dated on July 27, which was barely 24 hours to resumption of
the Senate from its about one month recess.
The judge also held that the court would
hardly intervene in a matter relating to the application or
misapplication of the internal rules of the Senate or the legislature
when such action did not amount to “subtantial infraction” of the
provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He held that in matters relating to
disputes over the “the decision reached by a majority of the members of
the Senate”, aggrieved members of the arm of government could only seek a
redress by mobilising their colleagues to reverse such decision.
He held that in various appellate courts’
decisions, courts had been warned “to be wary” in intervening in such
internal legislative activities, let alone granting an order to restrain
the activities of that arm of government at the stage of an ex parte
hearing.
“In the light of the above analysis, I
will be unable to grant the ex parte application dated July 24 and only
filed on July 27, 2015 by only five out of the 109 senators
constitutionally elected to the upper legislative chamber,” Justice
Kolawole ruled.
He therefore ordered the plaintiffs to
serve the motion on notice seeking the same prayer contained in their ex
parte application on the defendants.
The judge adjourned hearing of the motion
on notice till August 5, adding that after the hearing and upon service
of the defendants with the processes of the main suit, he would return
the case file to the Chief Judge.