THE 10 Katsina State federal lawmakers (two senators and eight House of Representatives members) from the Congress For Progressives Change, (CPC) who were last week asked by an Abuja-based high court to vacate their seats, on Sunday described the judgment of the Justice Gladys Olotu-led court as a breach of the country's judiciary system.
The lawmakers, which noted that the Abuja High Court lacked merit to deliberate on the case, which it argued had earlier been handled by the Supreme Court with judgment in their favour on December 16, 2011, insisted that they were the authentic candidates of the CPC, since it was their names that were submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the CPC leadership.
The lawmakers who were sacked on Friday by an Abuja High Court had earlier got a Supreme Court judgment in December 2011, which sacked the group led by Senator Abdul Yandoma and Ahmed Sani Stores and eight other House of Representatives members.
Speaking in a media briefing yesterday in Abuja, the group, led by Senator Hadi Sirika, who described the judgment as a show of shame in the Nigerian judiciary, wondered where a high court derived its powers to overturn the decision of the Supreme Court, adding that it was after they had earlier got a favourable judgment at the appeals court that the other group went to challenge the appeal court judgment at the Supreme Court, where they also lost.
Sirika, who disclosed that his team has immediately filed an appeal challenging the decision, noted that they were the winners of the authentic primary election that was conducted by the CPC.
"On 20th April 2011, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja agreed with all the arguments of the CPC and consequently set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court. In a unanimous decision, the court averred that the provision of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) and the 1999 Constitution, the party at the national level is the only organ empowered to organise primary elections and not any of its branches, and therefore the Katsina State branch of the CPC cannot usurp the powers conferred on the National Executive Committee. It therefore noted that the trial court, the High Court was wrong in relying on the parallel primary elections of January 15, 2011, which was conducted by Senator Lado and the Katsina State CPC to hold that the first respondents had sufficient proofs that they were the candidates of the CPC for the April general elections.
"It was when Senator Lado and others were not satisfied with the sound decision of the Court of Appeal and consequently filed an appeal at the supreme court in case number SC/157/2011, which they also lost" stated Senator Sirika who noted that the judgment of the Abuja High Court was a direct confrontation with the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court which it has therefore nullified."
Meanwhile, the Senator Rufai Hanga-led faction of the CPC has called on the leadership of the National Assembly to waste no time in ensuring that the 10 lawmakers are reinstated without delay.
In a statement issued yesterday by the protem National publicity secretary of the party, Denis Aghanya, the faction noted that the senator Yandoma-led lawmakers were the rightful owners of the CPC ticket in Katsina State, alleging that their names were wrongly substituted by the CPC leadership under Tony Momoh with the connivance of the INEC.
The group, which described the decision of the Federal High Court to return the lawmakers to the National Assembly as the high mark in the judicial system of the country, warned that any delay in returning the lawmakers to the rightful seat at the National Assembly could be seen as a move to ridicule the land mark decision of the Abuja high court.
