There is palpable tension as the Plateau State House of Assembly resumes plenary today and the 16 lawmakers elected on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party on Monday said they will resume their legislative duties despite their sack by the Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had in November sacked all the 16 members of the state House of Assembly elected on the platform of the PDP on the ground that the party had no structure to nominate them as candidates.
Addressing a press conference in Jos on Monday, the 16 lawmakers led by a former Majority Leader, Yobo Ishaku, argued that since the Supreme Court which upheld the election of the state Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, on the same issue had ruled that the PDP had valid structure to nominate them as candidates, the verdict of the Appeal Court sacking them as lawmakers had become a nullity.
Ishaku, who represented Bokkos State Constituency, said, “Our recess ends today (Monday) and we want to inform the public that we, the PDP family are in high spirits and are willing to go back to our legislative duties willingly given to us by our various constituencies.
“So, we are all ready to resume work tomorrow (Tuesday)”
Explaining the rationale behind their decision to resume plenary, Ishaku said, “While we were on recess, there were two judgments that were passed regarding the Plateau State House of Assembly. The first one was the one given by the Court of Appeal and the justices said that one cannot put something on nothing, that the PDP on the Plateau had no structure and it was on that basis and premise that they sacked all the 16 PDP House of Assembly members.
“While we were still in recess, the Supreme Court gave its own verdict regarding the same issue and in the judgment of the Supreme Court, the justices said that the case that was brought before the Court of Appeal was fraudulent and that the court even lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter in the first place.
“By that, it shows that referring to their own submission that you cannot build something on nothing. By implication, the verdict of the Court of Appeal is a nullity and we are disregarding that judgment in its entirety.”
Ishaku added, “Our constituents are ready and willing to accompany us to our sitting tomorrow because they voted for us and they are not ready to compromise that.”
The embattled lawmakers expressed regrets that the Court of Appeal justices passed judgments sacking them in disregard to settled Supreme Court judgments on the matter.
They called the Nigerian authorities led by President Bola Tinubu as well as the heads of the Nigerian judiciary to sanction the President of the Court of Appeal under whose watch the alleged illegality was committed.
They also called on the beneficiaries of the Court of Appeal judgments sacking them not to consider themselves as lawmakers because they were not elected by the people but a product of fraudulent judgment that has been overruled by the apex court.
