Senate president, Bukola Saraki has told a Federal High Court sitting before Justice Adeniyi Ademola in Abuja, that he did not violate any law or breach any rule in the election that produced him as Senate president, contrary to the claims against him by some aggrieved senators.
Saraki told the court that he was returned un-opposed in the election by majority of the senators present on the election day in the Senate following his due nomination and endorsement for the office.
In his preliminary objection to a legal action instituted against him and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, he insisted that the election being challenged by five senators was free, fair and transparent by all standards and also conformed to the best practice of the world.
The Senate president, through his counsel, Kayode Eleja, asked Justice Adeniyi Ademola to dismiss the court action against him and five others for being abuse of court process, frivolous and unwarranted.
He said the five senators who instituted the court action did not disclose what they lost by his election because none of them aspired or contested the Senate presidency with him or any other officers, and as such had no locus standi to come to court.
Senators Abu Ibrahim, Kabir Garba Marafa, Robert Boroffice, Olugbenga Ashafa and Othman Hunkuyu had sued the Saraki and his deputy claiming that the Senate standing rule used in their election was amended without due process.
In their suit filed by their lawyer Mamman Mike Osuman, they asked the Federal High Court to set aside the election for being a nullity, having allegedly violated the 2011 standing rule inherited in 2015.
But Saraki told the court that the process of the election in the Senate was a domestic affair of the senators because no part of the 1999 Constitution or any other law was violated to warrant any litigation and that the court had no business to inquire into the internal affairs of the Senate.
“There are 109 senators in the Senate and only five are challenging the election of the officers. The point is that, the interest of the five senators, if any at all, cannot over-ride or be larger than the interest of 104 other senators.
“If they are actually in the majority, as they claimed, they should go back to the floor of the Senate and test their popularity rather than rushing to court on issues that are purely internal affairs of the distinguished senators,” the counsel submitted.
“Up till now, they have not pointed out any infraction to the 1999 Constitution or any other law in the conduct of the election, they have not told this court what they lost by the election of the Senate president and they have not told this court that they aspired to the office but was denied, they are in this court to waste the precious time of this court and I urge the court to show them the way out,” he insisted.
Saraki’s counsel faulted the vote of proceeding brought to the court to file the action, adding that being public documents, the five senators ought to have brought original or certified true copies instead of photocopies that were not inadmissible in law.
Counsel to Ekweremadu, Patrick Ikweto and Ikechukwu Ezechukwu, who stood for the National Assembly, adopted the position of Saraki.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola, who heard the preliminary objection along with the substantive suit, reserved judgment till a date to be communicated to parties in the suit.
