Obey Supreme Court, swear in our member, PDP tells Kano Assembly Speaker

The PDP, in a statement released Sunday, said the disobedience of the apex court’s judgement by the House was a glaring case of impunity and lawlessness by the All Progressives Congress government in the state. The Supreme Court had on July 12 delivered the judgement in a case concerning the Assembly seat of Kura/Garun-Mallam Constituency of Kano State. ‎ In an appeal by the APC, the court upheld the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Kaduna Division which was delivered on November 17, 2015. It said that the appeal was completely devoid of merit and dismissed it accordingly. The court ordered the third appellant, Hayatu Sallau, to vacate the seat in the state House of Assembly and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to withdraw the certificate of return issued to the appellant and immediately issue the same to the runner-up in the 2015 election into the House. “The Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly or the Clerk of the House of Assembly (whichever is applicable) is hereby ordered to Swear in the Runner-up in the Said Election,” the court further directed. ‎ INEC has already complied with the judgement by issuing the certificate of return to Mr. Mohammed. But 26 days after the judgement, the Speaker of the House of Assembly is yet to comply. “In a lawless and barbaric display of power and impunity for which the APC has become well known, the Speaker has blatantly refused to swear in our candidate,” the PDP said on Sunday. “The party is calling on the Governor of Kano State, the Attorney-General of the Federation and all well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly to obey the Rule of Law and to perform his constitutional duty by swearing in Mr. Abdullahi Mohamed without further delay,” the party urged. The party warned that it was “looking at all legal options to bring the erring Speaker to book for this constitutional violation. “We fought hard for this democracy. We sustained it for 16 good years. We will not allow it to be destroyed by the recklessness of those who are intoxicated by power,” it said.]]>