44 Days After Court Verdict, Kogi Assembly Refuse to Swear in PDP Lawmaker

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Forty four after a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ordered the swearing in of Hon. Daniel Ojata Enefola of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the elected lawmaker representing Ibaji State Constituency, the Kogi State House of Assembly has failed to honour the court ruling.

It was reliably gathered that that the sacked former lawmaker, Atule Egbunu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been attending sittings with the other 24 APC lawmakers in the Kogi State House of Assembly.

Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, 29th January, 2021 ordered the removal of Mr Atule Egbunu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and directed that he be replaced with the candidate of the party with the next highest votes in the December 5, 2020 bye-election in the constituency.

It is however curious to note that Hon. Enefola who had collected his certificate of return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on March 1, 2021 is yet to be sworn in by the speaker of the Assembly, Prince Mathew Kolawole 44 days after the court ruling.

It was gathered that the PDP lawmaker had made several attempts to get to the speaker for him to perform his legislative duties but his efforts never yielded any positive result.

Egbunu was present on Tuesday, 2nd and 9th March, 2021 during House sittings.

When contacted, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Deputy Publicity Secretary, Comrade Mohammed Kabir (KB) described the action of the Assembly as a rape of democracy and a total disregard for the rule of law.

He also described the sacked lawmaker, who has continued to sit in the House as Ibaji lawmaker as an impostor.

Kabir called on the appropriate authorities to look into the issue. 

“On the 29th January, 2021, a judgment by a Federal High court seating in Abuja sacked Hon Atule Egbunu of the APC, representing ibaji constituency in the Kogi State House of Assembly as a result of improper primaries. Consequently, the party with the next highest number of votes was declared winner of the bye election conducted on 5th December, 2020 which is PDP and her candidate, Hon Ojata Daniel Enefola.

“Our legal team put up several letters to the Kogi State House of Assembly for official notification. He also copied INEC for the issuance of certificate of return to me. INEC in their procedure delayed for over 14 working days in case an order for stay of execution may originate from the trial court but none arose.

“On the 18th of February 2021, the defendant approached the appeal seeking an order for stay of execution which was struck out. Hence, INEC has no option than to give  our candidate Certificate of Return after which our legal team wrote again to the Speaker seeking for our candidate inauguration on the 9th of March, 2021. Our candidate personally met with the speaker on the 9th March, 2021 and he said he would refer the issue to house committee on legal issues.

“The clerk confirmed receipt on the letters from our legal team. Our party  appeal to appropriate authorities to intervene as what is happening is a violation of the rule of law and disrespect to an order of a court of competent jurisdiction. Allowing the sacked member to appear in the proceedings of Kogi State House of Assembly amounts to gross impersonation,” he added. 

Recall that Daniel Enefola polled 4, 565 votes in the December 5, 2020 by-election, coming second behind Mr Egbunu of the APC who polled 8,515 votes in the election.

His removal as the lawmaker representing Ibaji was sequel to a suit filed by a member of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in the State, Mr Joseph Enemona. Enemona challenged the nomination of the sacked lawmaker, Mr Egbunu, as the party’s candidate for the by-election after the demise of a two time lawmaker in the constituency, Hon. John Abbah.

The plaintiff who had sought to contest for the APC ticket with Mr Egbunu and five others, alleged in his suit that the party (APC) failed to hold any primary election.

According to the plaintiff in his suit, the organisers of the purported APC primary election came to the venue with a prepared result and deprived him and his agents of entry.


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