It appears that Nigerians still do not have a united House of Representatives despite assurances by the key players in the saga which tore the House apart last year following the victory of Bauchi lawmaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, as speaker of the House. Dogara’s emergence was against the wishes of his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, which wanted a Lagos member, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, to head the House.
There has been quiet in the House for a few months since the last controversy which occurred when Dogara named the heads of the various House committees and essentially sidelined key supporters of Gbajabiamila from the ”juicy committees”.
However, a new battle front has opened, and it concerns the powers of the Speaker. 11 pro-Gbajabiamila lawmakers have sued Dogara before an Abuja High Court challenging his powers to suspend members, as granted by the new standing orders of the House. Joined in the suit is the Clerk of the House, Mr. Mohammed Sani-Omolori.
The lawmakers queried the power of the Speaker to suspend any member who approaches the mace for any intent, and to suspend for 30 days, any member who fails to obey the directive of the presiding officer. The powers were vested by the Standing Order of the House, which was adopted on October 8, 2015, after an ad-hoc committee reviewed the 2011 document.
The lawmakers suing Dogara are Hon. Aliyu Sani Madaki (Kano), Hon. Mohammed Musa Soba (Kaduna), Hon. Yusuf Bala Ikara (Kaduna), Hon. Abubakar Lado Suleja (Niger), Hon. Lawal Yahaya Gumau (Bauchi), Hon. Rotimi Agunsoye (Lagos), Hon. Aminu Ibrahim Malle (Taraba), Hon. Sunday Adepoju (Oyo), Hon. Ahmed Babba Kaita (Katsina), Hon. Philip Shuaibu (Edo) and Hon. Abubakar Chika Adamu (Niger). The lawmakers, through their lawyer, Mr. Ahmed Bello Mahmud, in the suit filed on December 14, 2015, want the court to declare the reviewed Standing Orders of the House as null, void and unconstitutional.
They urged the court to restrain the Speaker, the House or any of its agents from exercising “the purported amendments” vested on them in the new rules pending the determination of the suit. They also urged the court to declare the powers granted to the Speaker as “repressive, susceptible to abuse and breaches” of their constitutional rights.
