Senate leadership: Saraki, Ekweremadu, APC senators opt to settle out of court

A major truce has been brokered in the suit challenging the election of Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki as the Senate President and Chief Ike Ekwremadu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as Deputy Senate President.

The warring 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.

The case file was withdrawn from Justice Ademola on the strength of the petition by the Chief Judge, Justice Ibrahim Auta and re-assigned to Justice Evoh Chukwu to start afresh.

However, following the death of Justice Stephen Chukwu, the case was reassigned to Justice Kolawole from where the out of court settlement is now being sought.

The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu had in a motion challenged the competence of the suit before the federal high court in Abuja by five aggrieved Senators to contest the legality of the election of Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Ekweremadu as Deputy.

Ekweremadu claimed that the five aggrieved Senators erred in law by filling the action vide originating summons.

He disclosed that since the case of the aggrieved APC Senators was predicated on alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Order, they ought to have brought the action to court through writ of summons instead of originating summons.

In a motion on notice filed by his counsel, Patrick Ikwueto (SAN), Ekwueremadu prayed the court to order that the case of the aggrieved Senators was inappropriate for determination vide the originating summons procedure.

The Deputy Senate President had also asked the Court to order that the case be transferred for hearing under the general cause list and that the parties in the suit be directed to file and exchange pleadings and witness statements on oath for hearing and determination of the suit.

The grounds of Ekweremadu’s motion was that when a case is transferred to another court to be commenced de novo (afresh), it is trite law that the suit be heard anew and that all findings of the previous court cannot be adopted or built upon by the new court.

He argued that the suit filed by originating summons on July 27, 2015 was anchored on alleged falsification of the standing order of the Senate.

In an 18 paragraph affidavit in support of the motion, Ekweremadu claimed that the allegation of contriving or concocting the Senate Standing Orders 2015 amounted to falsification, forgery or fraud and that by the nature, the suit cannot be decided by originating summons but by the writ of summon where evidence can be adduced orally.

He averred that it was necessary to call oral evidence in order to resolve the material conflicts in the affidavit and counter-affidavit of the parties and that unless oral evidence tested under cross examination is produced, the conflicting affidavit will be incapable of resolution in the suit.