By Deborah Onyofufeke
Justice Donatus Okorowo of the Federal High Court Abuja, has ordered former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, to vacate his seat as member representing Dass, Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro Federal Constituency of Bauchi State.
Justice Donatus Okorowo, in a judgment, declared that Dogara’s defection from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress (APC), meant that Dogara, was no longer qualified to occupy the seat by virtue of Section 68(1)(g) of the constitution.
The Court agreed with the argument 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 house.
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.
The judge, held that Dogara’s action was prohibited by law, while he added 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.
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.
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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 the former speaker of the lower House 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 the state.
