The ruling upheld an earlier decision of a federal high court

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Friday fired two Senators and eight House of Representatives members from Katsina state, who got their seats after their initial occupants were sacked by the Independent National Electoral Commission December 2011.

The court ordered that those sacked by INEC be reinstated.

They are Senators Abdu Umar Yandoma and Ahmad Sani Stores, House of Reps members, Murtala Isa, Muntari Dandutse, Musa Salisu, Aminu Ashiru and Umar Adamu Katsayal, Muhammad Tukur, Tasi’u Doguro, and Abdu Dankama.

Those occupying the seats presently, who are to vacate are Senators Abubakar Yar’adua and Hadi Sirika, House of Reps members Ahmed Babba Kaita, Salisu Salisco, Umar Abubakar, Salisu Daura, Isa Doro, Sani Mashi, Abbas Machika and Mansur Funtua.

The first set of lawmakers were sacked in December 2011 by the electoral body which said they were not the due candidates for the elections on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC.

That decision was overturned in January 2013 by a High Court in Abuja, which ordered that the initial winners be reinstated. But that ruling was not effected as the second set of lawmakers appealed against the ruling.

In its ruling on Friday, the Court of Appeal affirmed the judgement of the Federal High Court, Abuja which voided the withdrawal of Certificate of Returns of the first 10 Katsina lawmakers.

The court also said the leadership of the National Assembly acted in error by accepting to swear-in the second set of lawmakers to replace the old ones after INEC issued to them Certificate of Returns.

Justice Jimmy Bada, who led four other judges to hear the appeal said that the High Court was right to have dismissed the objection raised by the lawmakers currently in the National Assembly.

“There is no court of competent jurisdiction that declared the appellant as winner in the election,” the judge said.

“The respondents (those whose certificate of returns were withdrawn) were duly sworn-in and I am of the view that the court below has the powers to entertain the case of the respondent.

“The certificate of returns issued to the appellants is a nullity. The court below was right in dismissing the objection of the appellants. INEC issued the certificate of returns without order from any court or tribunal”.

The lawyer representing the lawmakers who have been ordered to vacate their seats, John Baiyeeshea, said the appeal, which raised four issues for the court’s determination, was not a pre-election matter and as such the federal high court had no jurisdiction to hear and make a pronouncement on it.

He argued that the issuance of Certificates of Return and alleged withdrawal of the certificate are post-election matters, and begged the court to annul the judgement of the high court.

http://premiumtimesng.com/news/147672-appeal-court-sacks-katsina-senators-house-rep-members.html?

In the eyes of the Constitution and the Electoral Act there's nothing like a "candidate" in an election as neither their names nor their faces appear on the ballout paper, only the party (logo). The question now is, if there should be a re-election, how are the sacked lawmakers going to contest since the party under whose paltform they ran has seized to exist?

I'm sure the constituency will even be confused who is actually representing them by now....

Our judiciary system ehn!!!!
SHM!!!

orisirisi

CPC: confused peoples congress
They go to confused.com

agabaI23: CPC: confused peoples congress
They go to confused.com

LOL!!!

Fellow 9gerians, let me tell
you the truth.. If you are
giving hope & thinking
that nigeria will one day
change... U go grow old..
The truth is that the country will never change,
every day by day nigeria
kip depreciating from bad
to worse...
Don't be deceived by those
words.. E ma tan ara yin..
Haters u can comment or hate me.. Fact #

Thank God oooo

I DONT BELIEVE IN NIGERIA by Esan Teniola
I don't believe in Nigeria. I don't believe in its leaders, I don't believe in anything they have to say. I don't believe that someone somewhere has the solutions to this country. I don't believe in superman. I believe in myself. I believe in my 2 hands, not begging for someone somewhere to make things right, but with these 2 hands I will build the country want to live in. I believe in my friends. I believe in my family. I believe in everyone who not only tries to make the world a better place for themselves, but also for everyone around them. I don't believe in independence. I believe in inter-dependence, for no man is an island. I believe in the potential of everyone I see on the streets. I believe in the children in that public school that had no toilets, who asked me "uncle, why dont our leaders care about the masses? Why do we always hear about corruption everyday?" I don't believe in leaders who send their children abroad to school while the nations universities are on strike. I dont believe in leaders who fly abroad for medical treatment when the nations hospitals are in need of better facilities. I do not believe in a cook who does not taste his own food. I will believe in the Minister of Education when I see his children attending public schools. I will believe in the Minister of Health when he undergoes heart surgery in General Hospital. Ivwill believe in the Minister for Tourism when he goes to Yobe for vacation and not London or Dubai. Till then, I dont believe in Nigeria. I mean the Nigeria of today, I believe in the Nigeria of tomorrow. The Nigeria that we will build. When all these black skinned colonial masters are gone. ~ Esan Teniola

Come to think of it, Only Animals play football in Africa ...
¤LIONS of Cameroon
¤ELEPHANTS of Cote D'ivoire
¤Super EAGLES of Nigeria
¤SQUIRRELS of Benin
¤Republic HAWKS of Togo
¤EAGLES of Mali
¤Atlas LIONS of Morocco
¤STALLIONs of Burkina Faso
¤Teranga LIONs of Senegal
¤SCORPIONS of Rwanda
¤Walya ANTELOPEs of Ethiopia
¤The Carthage EAGLES of Tunisia.. Nawa oooo
Dey also gat funny names like bafana bafana of
south Africa, chipolopolo of zambia nd pharaohs of
egypt.

CPC/APC the winning party come 2015...

It's their turn to eat the national cake

sкчscrαρεr™:
Come to think of it, Only Animals play football in Africa ...
¤LIONS of Cameroon
¤ELEPHANTS of Cote D'ivoire
¤Super EAGLES of Nigeria
¤SQUIRRELS of Benin
¤Republic HAWKS of Togo
¤EAGLES of Mali
¤Atlas LIONS of Morocco
¤STALLIONs of Burkina Faso
¤Teranga LIONs of Senegal
¤SCORPIONS of Rwanda
¤Walya ANTELOPEs of Ethiopia
¤The Carthage EAGLES of Tunisia.. Nawa oooo
Dey also gat funny names like bafana bafana of
south Africa, chipolopolo of zambia nd pharaohs of
egypt.

copy and paste wetin carry dis matter come here

Absolutely thought the topic meant something else

Fellow 9gerians, let me tell you the truth.. If you are giving hope & thinking that nigeria will one day change... U go grow old.. The truth is that the country will never change, every day by day nigeria kip depreciating from bad to worse...
Don't be deceived by those words..
E ma tan ara yin..
Haters comment

DankemzI: I DONT BELIEVE IN NIGERIA by Esan Teniola
I don't believe in Nigeria. I don't believe in its leaders, I don't believe in anything they have to say. I don't believe that someone somewhere has the solutions to this country. I don't believe in superman. I believe in myself. I believe in my 2 hands, not begging for someone somewhere to make things right, but with these 2 hands I will build the country want to live in. I believe in my friends. I believe in my family. I believe in everyone who not only tries to make the world a better place for themselves, but also for everyone around them. I don't believe in independence. I believe in inter-dependence, for no man is an island. I believe in the potential of everyone I see on the streets. I believe in the children in that public school that had no toilets, who asked me "uncle, why dont our leaders care about the masses? Why do we always hear about corruption everyday?" I don't believe in leaders who send their children abroad to school while the nations universities are on strike. I dont believe in leaders who fly abroad for medical treatment when the nations hospitals are in need of better facilities. I do not believe in a cook who does not taste his own food. I will believe in the Minister of Education when I see his children attending public schools. I will believe in the Minister of Health when he undergoes heart surgery in General Hospital. Ivwill believe in the Minister for Tourism when he goes to Yobe for vacation and not London or Dubai. Till then, I dont believe in Nigeria. I mean the Nigeria of today, I believe in the Nigeria of tomorrow. The Nigeria that we will build. When all these black skinned colonial masters are gone. ~ Esan Teniola

i believe in dis country nigeria.

Mmmm na so court get power?

As if they have anything significant to contribute• They'll just sit and get paid• Bunch of thieves.¤.

1MCN: In the eyes of the Constitution and the Electoral Act there's nothing like a "candidate" in an election as neither their names nor their faces appear on the ballout paper, only the party (logo). The question now is, if there should be a re-election, how are the sacked lawmakers going to contest since the party under whose paltform they ran has seized to exist?

Kindly read the piece again....from what I read....The honorable court said..... those earlier sacked by INEC should be reinstated.

Abeg, for my own understanding as an ordinary nigerian, which party was sacked and was replaced by which party?

sкчscrαρεr™:
Come to think of it, Only Animals play football in Africa ...
¤LIONS of Cameroon
¤ELEPHANTS of Cote D'ivoire
¤Super EAGLES of Nigeria
¤SQUIRRELS of Benin
¤Republic HAWKS of Togo
¤EAGLES of Mali
¤Atlas LIONS of Morocco
¤STALLIONs of Burkina Faso
¤Teranga LIONs of Senegal
¤SCORPIONS of Rwanda
¤Walya ANTELOPEs of Ethiopia
¤The Carthage EAGLES of Tunisia.. Nawa oooo
Dey also gat funny names like bafana bafana of
south Africa, chipolopolo of zambia nd pharaohs of
egypt.

Politics all over the world is a dirty game. No permanent foe nor friend

..

You mean court of appeal sacks senators/reps that refused to bribe them? That's no news!

After over 2 YEARS?

What a useless country!

Make my comment self still dey 1st page ooo, I go hapi die

I come from futua the constituancy were Muntari Dandutse is representing. The fact is that what cause the trash is lack of understanding what is call politics by then leaders of CPC. Let take for instance Funtua-Dandume. In these area morethan 80 percent of the people living vote for CPC because of Muntari Dandutse. But the party reject him as their candidate after winning several primaries election.

the problem of this country doesn't lie with party... all of them don't practice internal democracy...pdp, apc, acn, apga and so on are all d same....what they are interested in is their pockets and how to oppress the masses.
we need individuals to liberate us from this bondage... that's y as bad as pdp may be you have akpabio, kwankwaso and few others still delivering dividends of democracy to their people...acn also have fashola, aregbesola and so on ruthlessly improving their states while okorocha is not doin bad for apga and despite the crisis in borno, shettima is doing wonderfully well for cpc.

@topic, hope those lawmakers will return all the allowances they collected while illegally occupying those seats, what about the bill they've sponsored (if there's any)? and Y on earth should it take judiciary 2 years to determine eligibility of candidates?

God, we cry unto you, send us Moses to take us out of Egypt and Joshua to lead us to promised land

What value are they hoping to add? Nigerian Politician doing what the KNOW BEST...occupy and syphone!

Ghen Ghen

Wittywizard: Fellow 9gerians, let me tell
you the truth.. If you are
giving hope & thinking
that nigeria will one day
change... U go grow old..
The truth is that the country will never change,
every day by day nigeria
kip depreciating from bad
to worse...
Don't be deceived by those
words.. E ma tan ara yin..
Haters u can comment or hate me.. Fact #

You are the change we need, so start now cos i believe in you that you can bring that change we need.

What of all the money paid to them? Who is gonna refund it? Who should be jail for all these electoral offence?