On December 10, 2019, some members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State stormed the state House of Assembly to protest alleged refusal of leadership of the House to allow the beneficiary of the Appeal Court ruling of November 12, 2019 and winner of the Ilorin South State constituency, Mallam Abdulraheem Agboola, into the Assembly complex. Agboola’s call at the House last Tuesday was the third futile attempt by him to the Assembly complex just to present his Certificate of Return to the Clerk of the House for absorption as a member of the 24-member House of Assembly.
It is recalled that Agboola recently won his case at the Appeal Court against the legislator earlier declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Hassan Abdulazeez. Agboola and his party members, as well as supporters believed the court had settled the matter concerning the seat beyond any iota of doubt. He spoke to newsmen on the intrigues and ding dong that played out after the decision of appeal court. Agboola said the House had denied him entry since he got Certificate of Return from the INEC since last week Thursday. “As we all know, Appeal court is the last destination for the House of Assembly election petition process. Its ruling has declared me winner. I started from the tribunal. I have my certificate of return from the INEC national headquarters, Abuja. The INEC in Kwara did the official presentation. According to the process, I have to come to the House in person to do documentation with the clerk of the House in order to ratify, verify, genuineness of the certificate. This is our third time of coming to Assembly since last Thursday that the certificate was issued; they did not attend to us. The Speaker, the Clerk and all of them have not made themselves available. We’ve been patient, telling our supporters not to be violent. This is the House we built. I served here between 1999 and 2003. “We got to the Assembly by 8:00 am on Tuesday (December 10), but the security personnel said that the speaker would address us when he comes. We said there’s no need for any address but that we should allowed entry into the House,” he said.
On his part, however, Hassan Abdulazeez, said the matter of who occupied the seat had not been settled. According to him, the legal battle over the seat has only entered the second stage. He said he had approached the Federal High Court, Ilorin to determine the legality of the ruling of the Court of Appeal, which ordered the INEC to withdraw his Certificate of Return and issue a new one to the second runner up in the March 9, 2019 State Assembly election Agboola of the PDP. In an originating summon, with suit number FHC/IL/CS/157/2019, Hassan said he had joined the PDP candidate, Agboola, the INEC, the Speaker, Kwara state House of Assembly, SalihuYakubu and the Clerk of Kwara state Assembly, Hajia Halima JumaiKperogi as defendants. Hassan premised his argument on the fact that in view of the judgement and order of the Federal High Court, Ilorin Division of February 27, 2019 in suit number FHC/IL/CS/8/2019; himself (Hassan) being the plaintiff was declared as the lawful and legal candidate of the APC for Ilorin South State Constituency in the said suit against another aspirant of the APC, SulaimanAbdulsalam.
The lawmaker claimed he partook in the election process from the party primary stage and won, up to the general election, consequent upon which he was issued the Certificate of Return by the INEC and sworn in on June 11, 2019 as a legislator in the ninth Kwara Assembly. He said, he was, however, dismayed when another Court ordered INEC to issue the PDP candidate Certificate of Return, as a result of an Appeal Court judgment where he was not even a party in the first place, when a subsisting court judgment/order declaring him the lawful candidate of the APC had not been set aside.
Hassan argued further that the case, which occasioned the judgment ordering the INEC to issue Certificate of Return to the PDP candidate, with suit number A/IL/EPT/SH/2/2019 was between Jimoh Raheem Agboola and Sulaiman Sheu Abdulsalam and two others, saying he was not one of them. He claimed that by the virtue of the Judgment and Order of the Federal High Court, Ilorin Division of February 27, 2019, declaring him the lawful and legal candidate of the APC for Ilorin South State Constituency for the March, 2019 election, which was won by his party, APC, he was and remains the duly elected, and member of the Kwara State House of Assembly.
Hassan said that in the absence of an Order of a competent court of jurisdiction setting aside the subsisting Order and Judgment of the Federal High Court, Ilorin Division of February 27, 2019 in suit number FHC/IL/CS/8/2019, pursuant to which he contested, won, given Certificate of Return and subsequently sworn in and inaugurated as a Honourable member of Kwara State House of Assembly, INEC has no vires and cannot issue or cause to be issued to the PDP Candidate, a Certificate of Return in respect of same election for Ilorin South Constituency.
He also claimed that the decision of the Court of Appeal, Ilorin Division, delivered on November 12, 2019, in Appeal number CA/IL/EPT/SH/2/2019, emanating from petition number KW/ST/EPT/HA/1/2019 to which he was not a party, did not, and cannot affect the mandate presumably given to him. Hassan averred that the Appeal Court judgment, delivered in the PDP’s favour, held that since Suleiman Sheu Abdusalam and the APC had pleaded that Suleiman was not APC’s candidate at the election, the party did not have candidate, without taking into cognisance the High Court judgment and Order, declaring him (Hassan) the lawful and legal candidate of the APC for Ilorin South State Constituency.
Also, in a supporting affidavit to the originating summon, Hassan shed light on the controversy that led to the legal technicalities. He claimed that he and four other aspirants; Sulaiman S. Abdulsalam, Kazeem Abdulrazaq, Abdulganiyu Erubu and Tajudeen Asunara contested the APC primaries for Ilorin South constituency, conducted on October 6, 2019, in a direct party primary, where he claim,ed to have scored majority of lawful votes cast and declared winner. He alleged that the current controversy started November 10, 2018, while his campaign was gradually taking off, when he discovered that his name was conspicuously omitted from the INEC’s list of candidates. Instead, the name of one Suleiman S. Abdulsalam appeared as the APC candidate for Ilorin South constituency.
This, he said, he protested in writing, adding that the party chairman replied, with a claim that ther omission of his name was in error and would be rectified. “But after release of the final candidates’ list by the INEC on January 31, 2019, with the error unrectified, I rewrote a letter to the APC national chairman, yet the supposed error was left unrectified, so I had to institute a legal action before the high court, for which judgment was delivered in my favour as the lawful APC candidate for Ilorin South State constituency.
The controversy has pitched the opposition party against the leadership of the state House of assembly. The chairman of the PDP in the state, Kola Shittu, condemned leadership of the Assembly over the alleged refusal to swear-in Agboola. In a statement, Shittu described the action as a wilful disobedience of court order and sheer abuse of power. “Agboola has, on three different occasions, been denied entry into the Assembly complex for documentation and swearing-in despite presenting his certificate of return. He was reportedly locked out on the order of the Speaker, YakubuDanladi.
“Nigerians are aware of the several court rulings the APC-led Federal Government has disobeyed in recent times. We are, therefore, not surprised by the unlawful actions of the leadership of the Kwara Assembly. Flouting of court orders is the forte of the APC. It is a public knowledge that the Court of Appeal is the final arbiter for all litigations arising from the national and state assembly elections. To this end, the judgment of the Appeal Court declaring Agboola as winner of Ilorin South constituency election cannot be appealed nor can there be any stay of execution of the court order.
“It is uncalled for and more embarrassing that the legislature that ought to be promoting the rule of law is the one treating valid court judgment with disdain. We, therefore, ask the leadership of the Kwara State House of Assembly to respect the rule of law by admitting and swearing in Hon. AbdulraheemAgboola Jimoh as the duly elected representative of Ilorin South State constituency in the Assembly. The PDP notes that wilful disobedience of court order by the leadership of Kwara Assembly amounts to recklessness and contempt of court, which undermines our judicial system and the sanctity of our constitution.
The chairman, House Committee on Information Culture and Tourism, Awolola Ayokunle, has also been speaking on the matter. He said the Assembly was served “a court summon joining the Speaker and the Clerk to the House, in a motion on notice with No. FHC/IL/CS/157/2019, filed in the Federal High Court of Nigeria, in the Ilorin judicial division, holden at Ilorin by Hon. Hassan Abdulazeez Elewu, restraining the House from swearing in of the PDP candidate pending determination of the case.
“As the first arm of government charged with the responsibility of lawmaking, the House cannot but abide by the law. However, the House is restrained from taking further steps in respect of the Certificate of Return issued to the PDP candidate for the Ilorin South constituency seat until the determination of the said suit scheduled to be moved on December 16, 2019.” He assured general public that the House was ready to abide by the rule of law at all times. While accusations and counter accusations continued between the two politicians, some observer shave called on the leadership of the parties involved to find a way out of the troubling scenario. This, according to them, is because the state governor, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, had earlier congratulated the Agboola upon his victory in the Appeal Court. In their opinion, the quick resolution of the crisis will enable the people of the Ilorin South state constituency enjoy the dividends of democracy that they had consistently clamoured for.
and then