A FEDERAL High Court in Abuja has given nod to plan by the Inspector General (IG), Ibrahim Idris, to sue for an order quashing the May 9, 2015 resolution of the Senate, which described him as “an enemy of democracy and unfit to hold any public office within and outside Nigeria”.
In an ex-parte ruling, Justice John Tsoho granted leave to the IG to file an originating summons for judicial review of the said resolution made on May 9 this year by the Senate, for the purpose of quashing it.
The judge ordered that processes in the suit, including the ruling, to be served on the respondents – the Senate and its President, Bukola Saraki – through the Clerk of the National Assembly.
He said the service of the processes through the Clerk of the Senate shall be deemed proper and valid service.
Justice Tsoho gave the ruling after IGP’s lawyer Alex Izinyon (SAN) moved the application and prayed the court to grant it.
The proceedings yesterday were separate from a pending suit equally file by the IG, challenging the legitimacy of the Senate’s insistence that he must appear before the legislative house in person in relation to the Senate’s purported probe of the trial of its member, Dino Melaye, on criminal charges.
Idris, in an affidavit supporting his ex-parte application that was moved yesterday, described the May 9 resolution of the Senate as “legislative judgment”.
He argued that the conduct of the respondents, in the proceedings leading to resolution, was borne out of the “hatred and undisguised contempt” they allegedly harbour against him.
The IG said the conduct of the Senate and its President, Saraki, during the “votes and proceedings” leading to the May 9, 2018 resolution “is palpable of bias, deep rooted prejudice, visible hatred, and undisguised contempt of me”.
He added: “That I was informed by my lead counsel, Dr. Alex A. Izinyon, SAN, in his office at No. 1 Kinshasa Street, Wuse Zone 6, Abuja on May 20, 2018 about 5:30pm of the following facts, which I verily believe to be true:
“That the respondents lack the competence and/or jurisdiction to impose penal sanction on me under section 88 and 89 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
“That the respondents act ultra vires its powers under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by imposing on me penal sanction unknown to law contained in the said gazette dated 9th May, 2018.”
The IG added that the conduct of the respondents throughout the votes and proceedings that led to the said resolution showed “deep rooted prejudiced, visible hatred and undisguised contempt for me”.
“That the said votes and proceedings leading to the resolution contained in the said gazette wherein sanction was imposed on me is a legislative judgment.
“That this court has the supervisory power to quash the said resolution contained in the gazette dated May 9, 2018,” he said.
The IG, in the originating summons, is praying the court for “order of certiorari” quashing “the entire votes and proceedings” leading to the “resolution contained in the gazette dated May 9, 2018”.
He also prayed for the same order “quashing same the report of the Ad hoc Committee investigating the various allegations levelled against the applicant (Idris) that led to the said resolution contained in the gazette dated May 9, 2018”.
Hearing in the case has been fixed for June 27.
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