Saraki’s lawsuit: FG challenges court on jurisdiction

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, has challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court in Abuja to entertain the suit seeking to stop the removal of Dr. Bukola Saraki as Senate president.

According to Vanguard, the AGF urged the high court to hands off the suit lodged before it by two former All Progressives Congress, APC, senators, Rafiu Adebayo and Isa Misau.

He described the two lawmakers, who recently defected to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as “mischief makers,” insisting they failed to establish any acceptable locus standi to institute the action.

The AGF maintained that the plaintiffs failed to show how Saraki’s removal would affect their personal rights, even as he accused them of attempting to cry more than the bereaved.

Malami’s position was contained in a preliminary objection he filed in opposition to the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/843/2018, wherein the two ex-APC senators are praying the court to abort any attempt to forcibly and illegally re-open the Senate chamber with a view to removing Saraki from his position.

The plaintiffs, who represent Kwara South and Bauchi Central respectively, alleged that some chieftains of their former party, APC, led by its National Chairman, Adams Oshiomohole, and the AGF, had perfected plans to use security agencies to force Saraki to vacate his position as Senate president.

They applied for an order of interlocutory injunction stopping any impeachment proceeding against Saraki, pending the determination of legal issues they posed before the court.

In a 13-paragraphed affidavit personally deposed to by Senator Misau, he told the court that the APC was collaborating with key security agencies and the AGF to ensure that Saraki’s removal, notwithstanding the number of senators in his support, was forced out of office.

He said:  “Unless the defendants and their agents are restrained by this Honourable court from taking the law into their hands, the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would not only be breached and violated by the defendants but would also plunge the entire country into a constitutional and social crisis of immense magnitude.”

However, the AGF, in his objection, dated August 27, urged the court to decline jurisdiction to entertain the suit, he argued, lacked merit.