It looks like Femi Gbajabiamila will be heading to the House of Representatives as earlier stated. The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has rejected a petition for the disqualification of Gbajabiamila, from contesting the position of the Speaker.
The All Progressives Congress (APC), which constitutes the majority in the incoming National Assembly, had, after a mock election it organized on Saturday, nominated Gbajabiamila as its sole candidate for the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The inauguration of the new 8th National Assembly and election of the principal officers of both the Senate and the House of Representatives will hold on Tuesday.
The Social Justice and Civil Rights Awareness Initiative had, on 4 June 2015, filed an ex parte application asking the court to restrain the House of Representatives from accepting Gbajabiamila’s nomination as an aspirant for the speakership position.
According to the Punch, the plaintiff filed the ex parte application along with the main suit (FHC/ABJ/CS/501/2015) in which Gbajabiamila, the House of Representatives and the Attorney-General of the Federation were joined as the 1st to the 3rd defendants.
It also filed a motion on notice seeking an interim injunction against respondents, a prayer similar to what is contained in its ex parte application.
The plaintiff’s petition was based on alleged conviction of Gbajabiamila in the state of Georgia, United States of America, for unethical practices in the course of his practice as a lawyer.
Gbajabiamila was said to have been suspended from practising as a lawyer for 36 months in the state of Georgia in the United States. But Justice Abdukadir Abdu-Kafarati, on Monday, rejected the plaintiff’s ex parte application seeking to disqualify Gbajabiamila to contest for the office of the Speaker.
Abdu-Kafarati, who heard the plaintiff’s lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), inside his chamber, ordered the respondents to appear in court on June 18 to show cause why the petition sought by the plaintiff in the ex parte application should not be granted.
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