A Federal High Court in Abuja has sacked the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara from the lower chamber and declared his seat vacant.
Mr Dogara, who represents the Bogoro/Dass Federal constituency of Bauchi State, was the Speaker of the House of Representatives between 2015 and 2019.
The judge, D.U. Okorowo, on Friday, ruled that Mr Dogara’s defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) was wrong and meant he should vacate the legislative seat.
Delivering judgment, Justice Donatus Okorowo, declared that having defected from PDP to APC, Dogara was no longer qualified to occupy the seat by virtue of Section 68(1)(g) of the constitution.
Justice Okorowo aligned with the argument of the PDP that by defecting from the party that sponsored him to the ninth National Assembly before the expiration of his tenure, Dogara ought to vacate the seat as he was no longer qualified to partake in the activities of the lower house.
The judge, who held that the action of the lawmaker is prohibited by law, agreed that the aim of Section 68(1)(g) was to check political prostitution among the legislators.
“The judgment is therefore given in favour of the plaintiffs I hereby granted the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs,” he declared.
The PDP and one of its members in Bauchi State had, in a suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1060/20, sued Dogara, the speaker of the House of Representatives.
Other defendants are the Attorney General of the Federation, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the APC as 1st to 4th defendants respectively.
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Mr Dogara defected to the APC after winning his re-election under the PDP in 2019
His frosty relationship with his state governor, Bala Mohammed, was one of the main reasons he ditched the PDP which he joined less than five years ago.
Mr Dogara had on July 24, 2020, dumped the PDP and returned to his former party, the APC.
Mr Dogara had earlier in 2018 dumped the ruling party for the main opposition platform after having a political confrontation for about two years with the then governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar.
In a letter of resignation addressed to the Bogoro ‘C’ Ward Chairman of the PDP dated July 24, 2020, Mr Dogara cited a breakdown of governance in his native state of Bauchi under the administration of Governor Bala Mohammed whom he said he helped installed as a governor in 2019.
The former speaker said he could not successfully ask questions about those issues without being accused of disloyalty if he were to remain in the PDP.
He argued that if he abdicated this responsibility of telling the truth to power in Bauchi State, has done the same under the administrations of former Governors Isa Yuguda and Mohammed Abubakar, he would be the most irresponsible and unprincipled politician in Bauchi State.
Mr Dogara was elected speaker on the APC platform in 2015. He decamped, alongside dozens of other lawmakers, to the PDP in the build-up to the 2019 general election.
He won his re-election as a lawmaker on the PDP platform but did not contest the speaker’s position as the APC won majority seats in the parliament.
After his meeting with President Buhari on July 27, 2020, the head of APC’s interim management committee, Mala Buni, who also attended the meeting, said Mr Buhari was pleased with Mr Dogara’s defection.
