Tambuwal’s suit stalled again

A suit filed by Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, before a Federal High Court in
Abuja, seeking an order stopping any plan to remove him
from office, was stalled on Tuesday.
The matter had also failed to make any progress at the
previous proceedings on December 3 due to fresh
applications that surfaced in court that day.
Again, the matter could not proceed on Tuesday after
counsel for parties seeking to be joined as co-defendants in
the suit, sought an adjournment.
The interested parties sought an adjournment in order to
respond to Tambuwal’s counter-affidavit which was filed
in opposition to their separate applications for stay of
proceedings.
Their applications for stay of proceedings were hinged on
the grounds that they had filed notices of appeal against the
ruling of the court which had disallowed them to be joined
as defendants in the suit.
The parties seeking to join the suit as defendants are the
representatives of Tambuwal’s kebbe/Tambuwal Federal
Constituency in Sokoto State.
One the two sets of the interested parties are the
Chairman of Kebbe Local Government Area, Bala
Konkani, and Chairman of Tambuwal Local Government
Area, Sambo Modo.
The other set of interested parties are three members of
the Sokoto State House of Assembly, Abdussamad
Dasuki, Suleiman Hantsi and Shuaibu Umar –
representing Tambuwal East, Tambuwal West and Kebbe
constituencies respectively.
The constituents are opposed to Tambuwal’s removal as
Speaker and declaration of his seat vacant, arguing that
removing him would deprive them of representation in the
House of Representatives.
On Tuesday, Tambuwal’s lead counsel, Mr. Lateef
Fagbemi (SAN), informed the court that his team had
filed a counter-affidavit to the applications seeking stay of
proceedings.
Counsel for the interested parties, Israel Olorundare
(SAN) and Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), then asked
court for a short adjournment to enable them respond to
the plaintiff’s counter affidavit.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed after listening to the
submissions of parties on Tuesday adjourned till December
16 to hear the application for stay of proceedings.
Justice Mohammed had disallowed the interested parties
to be joined in the suit on the grounds that their stance in
the suit ran contrary to that of the existing co-defendants
on record.
Also pending before the court is an application asking the
court to jail the Inspector-General of Police, Mr.
Suleiman Abba, for allegedly flouting an order of the
court.