The crisis rocking the national assembly is yet to settle as those opposed to the current leadership are bent at ensuring that nothing works in the hallowed chambers.
About four days to the resumption to duties after a short break, the crisis rocking the national assembly has taken a new dimension.
Seven senators on Friday filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking the nullification of the election of the president of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and other principal officers elected during the inauguration of the 8th Senate on June 9, 2015.i
The plaintiffs in the suit include Sen. Barnabas Gemade; Sen. Abu Ibrahim; Sen. Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan; Sen. George Akume; Sen. Kabir Marafa; Sen. Suleiman Hunkuyi; and Sen. Gbenga Ashafa.
In a related issue, another suit filed by Chief Anthony A. Adeniyi; Ibrahim Muhammed Sani; Adetunji Oso; I. K. Olarenwaju; Umar Abdulhameed; Rotimi Olorunfemi, Alabi Lawal; S. B. Oladeinde; K. Kokowei; and Kester Oyibo, is also asking the court to declare Standing Orders 2015 (as amended) as illegal, null and void.
These other new plaintiffs argue that since the conduct of parliamentary businesses and proceedings since 9th June 2015, were based on the controversial Senate Standing Orders, the election of Saraki and Ekweremadu cannot stand.
In a swift reaction, majority of the Senators under the banner of The Like Minds who spoke through their spokesperson, Dino Melaye described the attempt by Lawan and others as an effort in futility.
According to him, “the court is not for any particular set of people alone, it is for all of us. We shall meet there. To show you they are only wasting their time and trying to constitute a distraction to legislative duties, they were all in the Senate chamber when the votes and proceedings of the 9th of June that made Saraki the Senate President, were adopted by everyone. There was no single dissenting voice. They were all sworn in by the same person they are asking for the nullification of his election, does that mean they are saying that their own oath of office should also be nullified and they would not be senators again? Senator Marafa alone has addressed Saraki as Senate President on the floor of the Senate five times since after 9th of June.”
