The party had commenced the action following the defection of 37 lawmakers, who won election on its platform, to the opposition APC. The defection had initially given the APC a slim majority in the House. The majority was later reversed when some APC lawmakers decamped to the PDP. The PDP’s counsel, Yunus Usman, had, while arguing his originating summons, faulted the cross-carpeting of the lawmakers, saying that the legislators did so during the dependency of a judgment. He argued that by virtue of the October 2013 judgment of Justice Evoh Chukwu, which he claimed said there was no division in PDP, the matter had been laid to rest. Mr. Usman had further submitted that by virtue of the provision of Section 68(1)(g) of the 1999 Nigerian constitution, as amended, the lawmakers ought to have vacated their seats immediately. The counsel to the defendants, Mamoud Magaji, had in his submission, argued that it was wrong for the PDP to have sought to restrain its former members from House activities for defecting. Other defence counsel, Niyi Akintola, Sebastian Hon, James Ocholi, Abiodun Owonikoko, and Jibril Okutepa had prayed the court to dismiss the suit.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 06:44:58 +0000