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Saraki, Ekweremadu shun hearing of senate order forgery suit

Senate President Bukola Saraki, deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, and others shunned a scheduled hearing in a suit seeking their removal from office on the grounds of alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Orders 2015 used for the conduct of their elections shortly after the proclamation of the 8th Senate on June 9.

The suit, which is before the Federal High Court in Abuja, was filed by five senators who supported Ahmed Lawan for the position of the Senate President against Saraki.

 

None of the defendants was represented by their lawyers when the matter came up on Monday before Justice Adeniyi Ademola whom the case was re-assigned to after he took over from Justice Gabriel Kolawole as the vacation judge of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.

Ademola noted, while delivering a ruling during the proceedings, that the choice of Monday for the hearing of the plaintiffs’ motion on notice seeking an order restraining the Senate from going ahead to constitute its standing and ad hoc committees, was with the consent of lawyers to the parties to the suit.

However, the plaintiffs’ counsel, Chief Mamman Osuman (SAN), withdrew the motion on notice during the proceedings, saying the essence of the application had been overtaken by event with some of the committees already constituted.

Justice Ademola, while striking out the motion on notice in a short ruling, noted that the application contained the same set of prayers that were in the plaintiffs’ ex parte application, which was earlier dismissed by Justice Kolawole.

 

The plaintiffs contended that the election of the current leadership of the Senate and other proceedings based on the unconstitutional Orders was null and void.

‎The senators are seeking, among other prayers, the declaration of the Senate Standing Orders 2015 as null and void for being a product of an alleged illegitimate and unconstitutional amendment of the 2011 version of the standing orders.

They also want the court to nullify the amended order as well as the election of Saraki as the Senate President and that of Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy Senate President, ‎for being products of the alleged illegal orders.

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