Following the November 1 Court of Appeal ruling which faulted the retrieval of Certificates of Return of 10 lawmakers from the state and issuance of new ones to another set of lawmakers from the state who were presently occupying lawmaking position in the National Assembly, some Kastina lawmakers, on Wednesdy, engaged themselves a rumble style, using chairs to crack heads.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had on Friday had ordered that INEC reinstate those sacked by
Independent National Electoral Commission in December 2011. The affected Law Members are
Senators Abdu Umar Yandoma and Ahmad Sani Stores; those from the House
are: Murtala Isa, Muntari Dandutse, Musa Salisu, Aminu Ashiru and Umar
Adamu Katsayal, Muhammad Tukur, Tasi’u Doguro, and Abdu Dankama.
Those
who are presently occupying the seats ordered by the court to be
vacated are: Senators Abubakar Yar’adua and Hadi Sirika, those from the
House are: Ahmed Babba Kaita, Salisu Salisco, Umar Abubakar, Salisu
Daura, Isa Doro, Sani Mashi, Abbas Machika and Mansur Funtua.
Trouble started when those ordered by the court
to be reinstated demanded that the House swear them in but they were stopped by the present occupants in the House, this led to a fight in the public glare.
It,
however, took the intervention of the Minority leader, Honourable Femi
Gbajabiamila, Honourable Suleiman Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila and Deputy
Minority Whip, Honourable Garba Datti before normalcy was restored.
To
this end, they begged the court-reinstated lawmaker to step out of the
chamber and allow the leadership of the House resolve the issue and
subsequently took the ex-lawmaker along with some of his colleagues to a
room for a meeting.
However, midway into the meeting, the aggrieved court reinstated lawmakers walked out of the meeting.
Speaking
with newsmen after they staged a walk out, the court reinstated
lawmakers accused the National Assembly leadership of politicizing their
matter.
The Minority Leader, Honourable
Gbajabiamila however said that the House would do justice to the
matter, saying, “The House will follow procedures, tradition and the
law”.
