A major agreement has been brokered in the suit challenging the election of Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki as the Senate President and Chief Ike Ekweremadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as Deputy Senate President.
The conflicting parties in the suit announced on Tuesday that they have opted for an out of court settlement to finally bring to an end the crisis that greeted the Senate principal officers’ election in 2015 with Saraki emerging as the President of the Senate.
The five aggrieved Senators who instituted the suit told Justice Gabriel Kolawole yesterday that they have resolved to settle their internal dispute out of court in order for the Senate to make steady progress.
The plaintiffs who spoke through their Counsel, Chief Mike Mamman Osuman (SAN) however urged Justice Kolawole to give them a short time within which to file the report of settlement for the case to be terminated.
Lawyers to Saraki, Ekweremadu and others did not object to the new peace move and Justice Kolawole, in a short ruling, directed the Senators to settle all the outstanding arrears of differences in the interest of the country.
The Judge asked the parties to report the final outcome of their settlement on May 8, 2017 for the suit to be struck out.
The Plaintiffs, Senators Abu Ibrahim, Kabiru Garba Marafa, Robert Ajayi Boroffice, Bareehu Olugbenga Ashafa and Suleiman Othman Hunkuyi had sued Saraki, Ekweremadu and four others seeking that the election of Saraki and Ekweremadu as Senate President and Deputy respectively be set aside because the Senate Standing Order used for the election was forged.
Saraki had in his preliminary objection to the suit asked the court to throw it out on the ground that he was elected Senate President unopposed by his colleagues, claiming that the five senators have no basis to complain against the election because they never aspired to the office or have the mandate of other 104 senators to institute the suit.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola who first heard the case was petitioned by Ekweremadu at the verge of delivering judgment on the ground that the judge was biased against him due to external influence from Lagos APC state government that made wife of the judge, Mrs Tolulope Adeniyi Ademola, the Head of Service of Lagos to do their alleged bidding.
Source: Tribune
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