The aggrieved lawmakers had dragged Speaker of the House, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, the House and its Clerk, Mr Sani Omolori before an Abuja High Court over certain clauses in the new standing orders it approved for House proceedings. The aggrieved lawmakers, led by Honourable Ali Madaki (APC, Kano) included Honourables Mohammed Musa Soba (APC, Kaduna); Yusuf Bala Ikara (APC, Kaduna); Abubakar Lado Suleja (APC, Niger) and Lawal Yahaya Gumau (APC, Bauchi); Rotimi Agunsoye (APC, Lagos); Aminu Ibrahim Malle (APC, Taraba); Sunday Adepoju (APC, Oyo); Ahmed Babba Kaita (APC, Katsina); Philip Shuaibu (APC, Edo); Abubakar and Chika Adamu (APC, Niger). It will be recalled that the House had, on October 8, 2015, adopted the report of its ad hoc committee to review the House Standing Orders, 2011. The House had, among other things, given the Speaker powers to suspend any member who approached the mace with whatever intent. The Speaker, in the new standing order, was also vested with power to suspend a member for 30 plenary days for failing to obey the presiding officer’s directive for such a lawmaker to assume his seat during plenary. In the course of the eighth Assembly, some members had made attempt to snatch the mace during the heat of political drama that ensued in the House after the election of presiding officers of the House. The lawmakers, in summons written by their lawyer, Mr Ahmed Mahmud, dated December 2 and filed on December 14, 2015, prayed the court to restrain the Speaker, the House or any of its agents from exercising “the purported amendments” vested on them in the new rules pending the determination of the matter. The lawmakers also prayed them to declare as “repressive, susceptible to abuse and breaches” of their constitutional rights the powers granted the Speaker to present any proposal for the suspension of any member. The House spokesman, Honourable Abdulrazak Namdas, when contacted on the matter, said: “Although I have not seen the court papers, but since the matter is in court, it will amount to contempt of court for me to say anything. All I can say is that the court should be allowed to do its work and determine the matter.”]]>