In the past few weeks, the sacking of lawmakers by the Court of Appeal from their respective seats has set many tongues wagging.
In separate judgments by the Appeal Court, each of the federal lawmakers got sacked for different reasons.
Elisha Abbo (Adamawa North) was the first to be sacked followed by Abubakar Sadiku-Ohere (Kogi Central). The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division also sacked Darlington Nwokocha.
Simon Mwadkwon (Plateau North) was the third senator who was removed by the appeal court. It, however, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a rerun within 90 days.
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Abbo and Sadiku-Ohere are members of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mwadkwon is a member of the PDP and the minority leader of the Senate.
The timeline of legal activities below:
1. Kwankwaso vs Datti
The Court of Appeal in Abuja sacked Musa Ilyasu Kwankwaso of the All Progressives Congress and reinstated Yusuf Umar Datti of the New Nigeria People’s Party in the Kura/Madobi/Garun Malam Federal Constituency Election.
The three-panel led by Justice Tunde Oyebamiji Awotoye allowed an Appeal by Yusuf Datti and averred that the tribunal was wrong to have counted the date of the Appellant’s resignation on the date of his party’s primary election and that Section 77 of the Electoral Act was misapplied, saying no court has jurisdiction on the issue of membership of the party.
2. Nwokocha vs Akobundu
The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division also sacked Darlington Nwokocha, the Senate minority chief whip, representing Abia Central under the platform of the Labour Party (LP).
The court declared Augustine Akobundu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the authentic winner of the 25 February election in the senatorial district.
Akobundu, a retired colonel, is a former minister of state for Defence and former national organising secretary of the PDP.
3. Senator Abbo vs Amos Yohanna
The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division also sacked Senator Ishaku Abbo, the lawmaker representing Adamawa North Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
The court voided the election of Abbo of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in favour of the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Amos Yohanna.
The Court of Appeal, after hearing arguments from parties, agreed with Usman that based on Section 137 of the Electoral Act, 2022, the results tendered clearly showed that there was no compliance with the Electoral Act.
The court, thereafter, deducted the invalid votes from both parties and found that Yohanna and the PDP won the election by a majority of lawful votes.
4. Hon. Jingi Rufai vs Hon. Jaafar Magaji
An Appeal court sitting in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja also sacked the member representing Mubi North, Mubi South and Maiha of Adamawa State, at the House of Representatives, Hon. Jingi Rufai.
The court had sacked the People Democratic Party (PDP) candidate at the 2023 National Assembly election while declaring Hon. Jaafar Magaji of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as the winner of the election for the constituency & ordered INEC to issue him with a certificate of return.
5. Ohere vs Natasha Akpoti
The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal affirmed Natasha Akpoti-Uduagan (PDP) as the winner of the Kogi Central Senatorial Election conducted earlier in February.
The court dismissed the appeal filed by Senator Abubakar Sadiku Ohere (APC, Kogi Central) for lacking in merit.
Recall that in September, the Kogi State Election Petition Tribunal in Lokoja had nullified the victory of the Senate Chairman Committee on Local Content, Ohere of the All Progressives Congress.
Ohere, however, headed to the appellate court to seek redress but the court rejected his appeal and upheld Akpoti-Uduagan as the winner of the election.
6. Mohammed Salihu vs Abubakar Baba Zango
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja also set aside the judgment of the National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Yola, Adamawa State, which had affirmed Mohammed Salihu as duly nominated by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to contest for the last House of Representatives election.
Salihu contested for the Girei/Yola South/Yola North federal constituency election and won.
The lower court had dismissed the petition filed by Abubakar Baba Zango and the All Progressives Congress (APC) which contended that the PDP lawmaker was at the time of the National Assembly elections on February 25, not qualified to run because he allegedly presented a forged primary school certificate and birth certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Abubakar’s legal team had prayed the tribunal to nullify the PDP candidate’s election on that ground as well as order INEC to issue him a certificate of return having emerged as second runner-up in the said election.
But during its judgment at the time, the chairman of the tribunal, Justice Aloysius Okuma, dismissed Abubakar’s petition saying he failed to provide credible evidence to prove his certificate forgery allegations, especially in the area of name variation.
Dissatisfied, Abubakar’s lawyer, F.K. Idepefo, approached the Appeal Court to set aside the judgment and declare his client the House of Representatives member for the constituency in dispute.
Idepefo contended in his processes that “the justices of the election tribunal completely misconceived the case of the appellants in resolving that Salih, Salisu or Salihu is a misnomer or a variant of the name Salihu, as that was not the case of the appellants, rather, the case of the appellants is that certificates presented to INEC were forged.”
7. Chijioke Okereke vs Anayo Onwuegbu
The Court of Appeal also sacked Chijioke Okereke of the Labour Party as the member representing Aninri/Awgu/Oji-River Federal Constituency.
The Court dismissed Okereke’s appeal against an earlier sack by the Enugu State National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal.
In a judgement delivered on Monday, the Court ruled that the appeal against the tribunal ruling that Anayo Onwuegbu of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is the rightful winner of the election, lacks merit.
The tribunal had sacked Okereke, affirming Onwuegbu as the duly elected candidate of the February 25 poll.
Onwuegbu had approached the tribunal challenging the declaration of Okereke on the grounds that he was a stranger to the election as his name was not on the result sheet as the candidate of the Labour Party.
8. Stainless Nwodo vs Martins Oke
The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos nullified the election of Stainless Nwodo, a member representing Igbo-Etiti/Uzo-Uwani federal constituency of Enugu State in the House of Representatives.
The appellate court declared that Rt. Hon. Martins Oke of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, won the February election.
The candidate of the PDP, Oke, and his All Progressives Congress, APC, counterpart, Samuel Ekwueme, had challenged Nwodo’s victory at the tribunal.
The duo asked the tribunal to sack the LP candidate over alleged certificate forgery and irregularities during the election. But the court struck out their petitions.
The PDP and APC candidate, however, dragged Nwodo to the appeal court, insisting that he was not qualified to run for the election.
9. Ndudi Elumelu vs Ngozi Okolie
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja also sacked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Ndudi Elumelu and affirmed the Labour Party (LP) flagbearer, Ngozi Okolie, as the winner of the 2023 election for Aniocha/Oshimili federal constituency, Delta state.
The court of appeal in a judgment set aside the ruling of the national and state houses of assembly election tribunal in Asaba, the capital of Delta state.
The tribunal had initially declared Elumelu as the winner but the appellate court has now affirmed Okolie as the duly elected lawmaker.
The former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives had filed a petition before the tribunal praying it to disqualify Okolie.
