Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied and all that...(When Will Tambuwal Pronounce Abegunde's Seat Vacant?)

A landmark Supreme Court decision (unanimously made by the seven Justices, I hear) has been made. This should ordinarily "fix" the issue of the ignoble 'decamping to another party without deeming it fit and proper to resign' - particularly in the legislature where legislators (otherwise known as l-a-w-m-a-k-e-r-s) decamped rather inappropriately and nothing, I mean n-o-t-h-i-n-g happened! The Speaker(s) [national and state assemblies] / Senate President 'find themselves' that they cannot/will not[img][/img] declare the seats of such decampees vacant for a plethora of reasons two of which include:
- Being unsure of how to interprete the law in this regard
- Political convenience and calculations of interests.
As a friend of mine would say, "C'est Nigeria pour vous...!"

The Supreme Court judgement in the Abegunde affair should help in managing such cases in moving forward - hopefully. The crux being S68(1)(g) of the 1999 Constituion as amended which states:
"A member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House of which he is a member if -...being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected; Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored;..."


Outline of the Abegunde matter show inter alia that:
"Abegunde defected from the LP to the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria in 2011.

In a unanimous decision by the seven-man panel led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, the apex court held that a legislator’s defection to another party could only be justified if there was a division in the national structures which incapacitated the party that sponsored his election, to function.

The apex court held that Abegunde’s defection could not be justified since his excuse of purported division in the Labour Party was not in existence at the national level of the party...Abegunde defected from the LP to the now defunct Action Congress of Nigeria in 2011.

In a unanimous decision by the seven-man panel led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, the apex court held that a legislator’s defection to another party could only be justified if there was a division in the national structures which incapacitated the party that sponsored his election, to function.

The apex court held that Abegunde’s defection could not be justified since his excuse of purported division in the Labour Party was not in existence at the national level of the party."

Now in the light of the above, what is justiciable?
[a] Should or will the Speaker(s) / Senate President re-visit their decampee cases (especially those not yet in court) and declare related seats "vacant"? Will a member of these houses of assembly move a motion to the effect?

[b] Will INEC be required, if time allows, to conduct elections into the seats declared vacant by the Speaker(s) / Senate President based on this judicial pronouncement? For example, in Abegunde's case, will the time considered be since 2011 when he actually defected? What effect will/can it have on the recently concluded Assembly elections?

[c] What happens to all the salaries, emoluments, & allowances Abegunde / similar blokes collected in violation of the letters of the law? Where there is doubt in future, shouldn't such salaries, emoluments, & allowances be made to be paid into some special / dedicated account pending the determination of such cases to play safe?

[d] Moving forward,how is the police expected to "enforce the law" in respect of such matters? (Let's not re-visit our Legislators' wall scaling saga concerning similar matters!)

[e] Will the Assembly men who have been so affected by the Supreme Court judgement do the honourable thing as 'honourable members' and resign? (I can't really be asking this question, can I? Lol! Okay...!)

Now instinctively many of our "enlightened" folk knew that the "decent" thing for these blokes to have done was simply resign - honourably as adduced to their position. It was amazing that during the "age of unreason", these truly enlightened folk took to the vociferous defence of these decampees...! But this time, with the Supreme Court judgement, their silence is almost Shakespearian...No, I'd rather call it "Macbethian" - I love the ring to that! Yes! Macbethian, it is then, because now
"...the hurly burly is done
…the battle has been lost and won
So the three witches did meet again
No thunder, no lighting, no rain."

GOD bless Nigeria!

http://www.punchng.com/news/defection-supreme-court-orders-ondo-rep-
to-vacate-seat-2/