An Abuja Federal High Court fixed March 28 for ruling on an application brought by lawmakers who defected from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
Justice Ahmed Mohammed on Wednesday decided to announce the judgement in the matter after he will hear the arguments of counsels of the two parties.
At the resumed sitting earlier slated for judgment, counsel to the APC lawmakers, Mahmoud Magaji, brought up a motion seeking an indefinite adjournment pending the outcome of a ‘referral’ filed at the Court of Appeal.
Opposing the motion, PDP counsel, Joe Gadzama, drew the court’s attention that the business of the day was for judgement.
He called on the court to “cautiously frustrate any effort by anybody to delay the proceedings” as this is “of urgent national importance that different sectors of the society are keenly interested in the matter”.
Gadzama said that the ‘referral’ by the lawmakers’ counsel was supposed to be filed before the Federal High Court and not at the Court of Appeal.
He also asked the motion could not be considered by the court because “it did not follow the due process of law and is, therefore, an abuse of court process”.
“Since there is no ruling, there can never be an appeal against the lower court therefore, the referral doesn’t incapacitate the Federal High Court. “In the eyes of the law, there is no referral application; this application is just an example of the most incompetent application to be filed before a court of law,” he said.
Magaji, however, said that the contentious ‘referral’ was in conformity with the provisions of Order 30 of the professional ethics practice rules because the application was brought before the pronouncement of judgement is made by the trial court.
To recall, the lawmakers, led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu, have asked the court to restrain the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives from declaring their seats vacant.
What happen next if court rule against the defected senators&reps?