11 Lawmakers Drag Dogara To Court Over New House Rules

Crisis rocks the House of Representatives as 11 lawmakers have sued Yakubu Dogara, the speaker of the House, and its clerk, Sani Omolori, before an Abuja High Court over the new Standing Orders.

Speaker, Yakubu Dogara

Daily Sun reports that the lawmakers led by Aliyu Sani Madaki (APC, Kano) filed a suit by the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Ahmed Bello Mahmud, seeking 12 reliefs from the court, among which is a declaration that the new House Standing Orders is null and unconstitutional.

It would be recalled that on October 8, 2015 the House adopted the report of its ad-hoc committee that had to review the Standing Orders, 2011 edition, in which the Speaker is vested with the powers to suspend any member that approaches the mace, the symbol of authority in the House, with whatever intent.

The Standing Orders also provide that the speaker can suspend any member of the House for 30 plenary days for failing to obey the presiding officer’s directive for such a lawmaker to assume his seat during plenary sessions.

According to some lawmakers, the new rules are restrictive and conceding much power to the speaker. Therefore, in the suit they asked the court to restrain the House, Dogara or any of its agents from exercising “the purported amendments” vested on them in the newly adopted Standing Orders.

They also prayed the court to declare as “repressive, susceptible to abuse and breaches” of their constitutional rights, the powers granted Dogara to present any proposal for the suspension of any member.

When contacted, Abdulrazak Namdas, the chairman of the House committee on media and publicity, said:

“Although I have not seen the court papers, but since the matter is in court, it will amount to contempt of court for me to say anything. All I can say is that the court should be allowed to do its work and determine the matter”.