Two men have been sworn in by the senate president, Bukola Saraki, as senators representing the same senatorial zone, Niger South. They are General Mohammed A. Garba and Malam Mustapha Sani Mohammed. Constitutionally, each senatorial zone in a state is entitled to only one senator while a state can have only three in all.

So how did two men manage to get sworn in as senators for one seat?

Gen. Garba was the one who was first sworn-in on the day the senate was inaugurated on June 9, whereas Mustapha’s own swearing-in was only done last Wednesday by senate president Saraki. There are claims that Saraki bowed to pressure from his associates to swear Mustapha in despite Garba being the legal occupant. That charge has however been denied by Saraki through his special adviser on legal and constitutional matters, Barrister Ibrahim Tukur El-Sudi.



El-Sudi has blamed the judiciary for the confusion, saying there was a lack of information, as they had written to the court of appeal asking for the status of the matter but did not get a response until they had sworn-in Mustapha. It is unclear why Saraki went ahead to swear in a second occupant without adequate information as claimed by his adviser.

The battle between the two men who are both APC members started when they fought for the APC ticket. It was Mustapha who won the primary, but a court reportedly ruled that he was not a member of the party and his name was substituted with that of Garba who went on to contest and win the general election and was sworn in at the senate’s inauguration.

Malam Mustapha has, however, challenged General Garba’s claim to the seat in court, insisting that he was the legally elected senator as he was the original nominee of the party. The case is still in court, but Saraki went ahead and swore in Mustapha anyway even though Garba’s seat has not been declared vacant and he still holds the INEC certificate as winner.

The senate president, through El-Sudi, said that his office did not have adequate information on the issue in good time and did not know someone had been sworn-in for the seat. They wrote to the Supreme Court and Appeals Court, but did not wait for response before swearing in Mustapha.



According to El-Sudi: “Before Mustapha was sworn in, we wrote to the Supreme and appeals courts, asking whether there was application on the senatorial district. The Supreme Court replied (to) our letter on the 7th August, the following day after we wrote to them. The Supreme Court said there was no any pending application, but the appeals court did not reply (to) our letter until on 12th of this month, just hours after Mustapha has been sworn in.

“It was the appeals court that told us that there was a pending application on the seat. We acted because we thought nothing was pending,” he said.

http://www.thescoopng.com/confusion-senate-president-saraki-mistakenly-swears-in-two-men-for-same-senate-seat/

haba bro. bukky.....what are u thinking again?

Confucianism

Him brain de do multi-tasking

who we have as our senate presido is a product of over ambition and incompetence, so no one should be surprised,rather expect more of these "mistakes" in coming days..

he is still fighting a legitimacy battles so you should bearwith him.

who we have as our senate presido is a product of over ambition and incompetence, so no one should be surprised,rather expect more of these "mistakes" in coming days..

he is still fighting a legitimacy battle so you should bearwith him.

Apc......confused tenure

nawa ooo

Bukola is a dunce

As if we need any further reason for the highly tainted Saraki to have never be allowed to become the senate president.
His has been a reign of treachery,errors,&incompetence.
From swearing in a minority David mark as "majority leader" to jumping the boat to send condolescences of the senate president on the death of the late Ooni even without the palace confirmation,etc,and now this show of incompetence again.
I wonder how long Nigeria has to endure the man on a seat he is clearly not fit and competent to occupy.

tobechi74:
Apc......confused tenure

You are the confused one. When the APC did not support this same Saraki as senate president, a lot of you guys opposed to the APC were the ones that gave him support. Now that he has started messing up, you are pushing the blame to the APC. APC only supported him as a senator knowing his antecedents and capability. Any mistake he makes as a Senate President and not as a Senator should be borne by him and you his supporters and not the APC. Stop using cheap blackmail. This is the same way you'll go about blackmailing the APC that the North has both Senate President and Speaker of the house, whereas you guys played an active role in ensuring that happens. 1. During the elections by not electing any ranking APC member from the SE and SS and 2. By directly supporting these Northern guys when they defied the APC.

Read and digest information properly before you start blaming anyone. Afterall, he didn't swore him in without first requesting information from Supreme and Appeal courts. The late response from the Appeal court caused his action. He was trying to beat the timeline for recess.

Ok

Hehehehehe. That guy is so confused #BringbackDavidMark

I doubt if Saraki can remember how to treat someone who's suffering from typhoid,he just has that "Dr" title on like mink,he has forgotten everything he learned,politics has occupied all his thinking,that's why he made that mistake. What a dullard,Oludolapo Saraki

This is confusion indeed

See where the gra-gra of wanting to be SP has landed him.

This is Junk Journalism. It is not possible to have two senators from the same senatorial district. INEC should have spotted this error before issuing certificate of return