Stories by Vivian Okejeme
Abuja
About two years after the elections of both Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki and Dr. Ike Ekwremadu as both Senate President and Deputy Senate President respectively, parties in the suit challenging their emergence are seeking an out-of-court settlement.
They announced this at their last appearance before Justice Gabriel Kolawaole of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The five aggrieved senators who instituted the matter told Justice Kolawole they had resolved to settle their internal dispute out of court in order for the Senate to make steady progress.
Speaking through their Counsel, Chief Mike Mamman Osuman SAN, the lawmakers however urged the trial judge to give them a short time within which to file the report of settlement for the case to be terminated.
Counsel representing Saraki, Ekweremadu and others did not object to the new peace move.
In his short ruling, Justice Kolawole directed the Senators to settle all their differences in the interest of the country.
The Judge who praised the new unity, love and the spirit of give and take in the Senate, asked the parties to report back on May 8, the final outcome of their settlement for the suit to be struck out.
Plaintiffs in the suit are Senators Abu Ibrahim, Kabiru Garba Marafa, Robert Ajayi Boroffice, Bareehu Olugbenga Ashafa and Suleiman Othman Hunkuyu
They had sued Saraki, Ekweremadu and four others seeking that the election of Saraki and Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy respectively be set aside because the Senate Standing Order used for the election was forged.
Saraki had in his preliminary objection to the suit asked the court to throw it out on the ground that he was elected Senate President unopposed by his colleagues.
He also claimed that the five senators lacked any basis to complain against the election because they never aspired to the office or have the mandate of other 104 senators to institute the suit.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola who first heard the case, was petitioned by Ekweremadu at the verge of delivering judgment on the ground that the judge was biased against him following external influence from the APC-led government in Lagos state, where the judge’s wife, Mrs Tolulope Adeniyi Ademola, serves as Head of Service, to do their alleged bidding.
The case file was withdrawn from Justice Ademola on the strength of the petition by the Chief Judge, Justice Ibrahim Auta and re-assigned to late Justice Chukwu to start afresh.
However, following the death of Justice Stephen Evoh Chukwu, the case was reassigned to Justice Kolawole from where the out-of-court settlement is now being sought.
Ekweremadu, had in a motion, challenged the competence of the aggrieved lawmakers’ suit to contest the legality of their election.
He said the lawmakers erred in law by filing the action vide originating summons.
The Deputy Senate President further disclosed that since the case of the aggrieved All Progressive Congress APC senators was predicated on alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Order, they ought to have brought the action to court through the writ of summons instead of originating summons.
In a motion on notice filed by his counsel, Patrick Ikwueto SAN, Ekwueremadu prayed the court to order that the case was inappropriate for determination vide the originating summons procedure.
The Deputy Senate President had also asked the Court to order that the case be transferred for hearing under the general cause list and that the parties in the suit be directed to file and exchange pleadings and witness statements on oath for hearing and determination of the suit.
The grounds of Ekweremadu’s motion was that when a case is transferred to another court to be commenced de novo (afresh), it is trite law that the suit be heard anew and that all findings of the previous court cannot be adopted or built upon by the new court.
He argued that the suit filed by originating summons of July 27, 2015 was anchored on alleged falsification of the Senate’s Standing Order.
In an 18-paragraph affidavit in support of the motion, Ekweremadu claimed that the allegation of contriving or concocting the Senate Standing Orders 2015 amounted to falsification, forgery or fraud and that by the nature, the suit cannot be decided by originating summon but by the writ of summon where evidence can be adduced orally.
