At last, Dogara swears in Hembe’s replacement

By Joshua Egbodo

Abuja

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has finally bowed to pressure to swear in Dorothy Mato as replacement for the sacked member representing Vandeikya/Konshisha Federal Constituency of Benue state, Herman Hembe. Hembe, who was chairman of House Committee on FCT, was sacked by the Supreme Court on June 23, for not being the proper candidate of the All Progressives Party (APC) to represent the constituency in the National Assembly election held in 2015. But the Speaker had repeatedly failed to act on the court’s directive even when Mato was repeatedly sighted in the House. Spokesman of the House, Abdulrazak Namdas, however exonerated the Speaker explaining last Th ursday that the delay was from the bureaucracy of the House, which ought to have presented Mato to be sworn in, but had not done so. He also denied that the delay was done to allow the sacked Hembe to explore all avenues for possible come-back. Th e Apex Court had in its judgement directed Hembe to vacate his seat immediately, for Mato to take over, and in addition had ordered INEC to withdraw the certifi cate of return issued to Hembe and issue same to Mato; and for the Speaker of the House to swear-in Mato as Hembe’s replacement. However, Hembe had fi led a motion on notice dated 18, 2017, in the Supreme Court asking the court to reverse the judgement, arguing that the judgement was done “in error arising from an accidental slip”. Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN)’ Justice Walter Onnoghen in a September 20 however, ruling on the issue insisted that the court being the Apex court of the land cannot reverse itself. Th e Supreme Court had also expressed displeasure over the reluctance of the leadership of the House to swear in Mrs. Mato as Hembe’s replacement since it gave a judgement to that eff ect on June 23, 2017.

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