Court orders Saraki, Dogara, 52 others to respond to suit seeking vacation of their seats over defection

Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and 52 other lawmakers have been ordered to file their responses to a suit asking them to vacate their seats by April 17.

The lawmakers had on Friday forced an adjournment in the case, at the Federal High Court Abuja, seeking to declare their seats vacant.

A civic group, Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), had asked that their seats be declared vacant due to their defection from the parties on which platforms they were elected.

The defendants include 17 Senators, 37 members of the House of Representatives, the Independent National Electoral Commission, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the clerks to both houses.

READ ALSO: Adamawa Deputy Governor Mulls Defection to PDP

A lawyer, Mahmoud Magaji, SAN, had appeared in court on Wednesday with an application which forced the court to suspend delivering judgement on the matter.

Following Magaji’s application, the court presided over by Okon Abang, adjourned till Friday to entertain arguments by parties.

But on Friday, another lawyer, Efut Okoy, asked the court for a further adjournment to allow the defence to regularise their processes.

In his reaction, Abang said the defendants were not supposed to appear before his court with an oral application related to their stance regarding the jurisdiction of the court.

Abang frowned at the application for adjournment, stressing that the law does not permit a court to grant a request for a postponement, just to allow a lawyer to bring in a fresh application.

The lead prosecution lawyer, Jibril Agbakoba, who was also in court, accused the defence team of acting with motives “aimed at perverting the cause of justice.”

In reaction, Mr Okoy said his team of lawyers was just beginning to appear in the matter, therefore their request for adjournment could not have been ill-motivated.

The court then adjourned the matter till April 18 for hearing of the application by the lawmakers after asking parties to file their processes.

Abang warned that parties who fail to comply with the directives for the filing of their processes will have themselves to blame when the matter is called on April 18.

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