Saraki risks being sent to jail for refusing to swear-in an APC senator-elect who got election results overturned

SENATE president Senator Bukola Saraki faces the prospect of going to jail after a federal high court judge in Abuja threatened to issue a bench warrant against him for refusing to obey an order asking him to swear-in a lawmaker who got election results overturned.

In an ongoing suit filed by Retired Air Vice Marshal Isaac Mohammed Alfa, Senator Saraki was ordered by the court to swear him in as the senator representing Kogi East Senatorial District. On June 13 last year, Justice Gabriel Kolawole ordered Senator Saraki and Alhaji Mohammed Sani-Omolori, the clerk of the National Assembly to appear in persons before the court.

However, Senator Saraki has defied this court order. Justice Kolawole, who is now a judge of Nigeria's Court of Appeal, had also ordered the  Independent National Electoral Commission to re-issue a certificate of return for Kogi West Senatorial District, this time to Vice Marshal Alfa of the All Progressives Congress, who he adjudged to have been duly elected.

In its ruling, the court had ordered Senator Saraki and Alhaji Sani-Omolori to swear-in Air Marshal Alfa as the senator representing Kogi East Senatorial District and ordered Senator Attai Aidoko of the Peoples Democratic Party, to vacate the seat because he was not validly elected. Despite the validation of the federal high court judgement by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, Senator Aidoko had through his lawyer, Patrick Ikwueto,  filed another suit before the same Federal High Court, asking it to set aside its order on January 28, 2019,

However, on February 21 this year, the federal high struck out the suit on the grounds that its order of June 13, 2018, is still valid and subsisting. Subsequently, Air Marshal Alfa’s lawyer, Reuben Egwuaba, applied for Form 48, which is a notice of consequences of disobedience to order of the Federal High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

Yesterday, the court granted Air Marshal Alfa’s application to warn Senator Saraki and Alhaji Sani-Omolori against further delay to inaugurate him as a senator. Justice Inyang Ekwo held that Senator Saraki and Alhaji Sani-Omolori should take notice that unless they obey the order, they will be guilty of contempt of court and will be liable to be committed to prison.

He added that Senator Aidoko’s appeal against Justice Kolawole’s judgement at the Court of Appeal was dismissed on October 24, 2018, thereby affirming the federal high court judgement. Senator Aidiko had further appealed against the Court of Appeal judgement to the Supreme Court but this was struck out on January 23, 2019 on the grounds that it was caught by the amendment to Section 285 of the constitution, which took effect from June 7 last year.