11 APC Reps Drag Dogara To Court Over House Rules

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Eleven members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the House of Representatives, have dragged the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, the House and its Clerk, Sani Omolori, before an Abuja High Court over the new standing orders of the Green Chamber.
However, the House has refused comments on the matter, saying the court be allowed to do its work.
The House had on October 8, 2015 adopted the report of its ad-hoc committee to review the House Standing Orders, 2011. In the new rules, the Speaker is vested with the enormous powers to suspend any member that approaches the mace with intents whatsoever.
The new Standing Order also provides that the Speaker can suspend a member for 30 plenary days for failing to obey the presiding officer’s directive for such a lawmaker to assume his seat during plenary.
In a summon through their lawyers, Ahmed Bello Mahmud dated December 14, 2015, the 11 lawmakers, led by Aliyu Sani Madaki (Kano), sought the court to declare the new Standing Orders as null and void and unconstitutional.
Madaki is the lawmaker, who was notable for allegedly attempting to snatch the mace sometime in August 2015, when a fracas erupted on the floor of the House, following the insistence of the APC to have Femi Gbajabiamila as the Majority Leader, which was opposed by the Dogara camp.
Madaki afterwards, refused to appropriately apologise on the floor, even after the issue was resolved, with his counterparts apologising and Gbajabiamila getting the Majority Leader position.
Consequently, the House in a bid to restore sanctity in the hallowed chamber and forestall such action in the future sought and inculcated it as an offence in its rules to interfere with the symbol of authority of the legislature. The lawmakers prayed the court to restrain Dogara, the House or any of its agents from exercising “the purported amendments” vested on them in the new rules pending the determination of the matter.
The other 10 APC lawmakers are Mohammed Musa Soba (Kaduna); Yusuf Bala Ikara (Kaduna); Abubakar Lado Suleja (Niger), Lawal Yahaya Gumau (Bauchi); Rotimi Agunsoye (Lagos); Aminu Ibrahim Malle (Taraba); Sunday Adepoju (Oyo); Ahmed Babba Kaita (Katsina); Philip Shuaibu (Edo) and Abubakar Chika Adamu (Niger).
They prayed the court to declare as “repressive, susceptible to abuse and breaches” of their constitutional rights the powers granted Dogara to present any proposal for the suspension of any member.
When contacted, Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas, said: “Although I have not seen the court papers, but since the matter is in court, it will amount to contempt for me to say anything.
“All I can say is that the court should be allowed to do its work and determine the matter.”
Credit: NationalMirror

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