The Supreme Court on Friday sacked the Senator representing Taraba North Senatorial District , Garba Umar , and the lawmaker representing Vandeikya /Konshisha Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives , Mr . Herman Hembe .

In two separate judgments , the apex court ordered the two legislators to refund all the salaries and /or emoluments which they had collected while occupying their respective seats in the National Assembly .

In the lead judgment of a five- man panel headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria , Justice Walter Onnoghen , the apex court ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to withdraw the certificates of return issued to them.

It also ordered INEC to issue fresh certificate of return to Isah Lau to replace Umar as the representative of Taraba North Senatorial District in the senate .
The same panel in the same judgment ordered INEC to issue a fresh certificate of return to Mrs. Dorathy Mato to replace Hembe as the lawmaker representing Vandeikya /Konshisha Federal Constituency.
The court sacked Danladi and Hembe in two separate judgments delivered in appeals marked SC / 583 / 2016 and SC /733 / 2016 by Lau and Mato respectively.

The apex court held that both Danladi of the Peoples Democratic Party and Hembe of the All Progressives Congress were not proper candidates of their parties for the last legislative elections .

The apex court ordered the Senate President to swear in Lau as Danladi ’ s replacement, and that the Speaker or Clerk of the House of Representatives should do so in relation to Mato as replacement for Hembe .

Justice Amina Augie , in the lead judgment of a five- man panel in the appeal by Lau , found that Danladi was not qualified to have been made a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last senatorial election.

Lau , who came second in the primary held on December 11 , 2016 , challenged the announcement of Umar , who was by then sacked as Acting Governor of Taraba State by the Supreme Court , as winner of the primary .

Before judgment could be delivered in the case , the PDP replaced Umar with Danladi after giving the governorship ticket to Darius Ishaku.

Lau pressed on with his case , arguing that the substitution of Umar with Danladi was unlawful because Umar was not a valid candidate in the first place.

Upholding Lau ’ s contention on Friday , Justice Augie held , “ The appellant (Lau ) satisfied conditions and fulfilled all requirements for participating in the 1 st respondent ’ s ( PDP’ s ) primaries for a senate seat. But apparently , the 1 st respondent had better candidates in mind.

“ To this end, I will simply say that from all that I have said so far and with the issues resolved in favour of the appellants , this appeal is allowed and the decision of the court below is therefore set aside . ”

Justice Onnoghen also held that Hembe only defected from PDP to APC on December 16 , 2016 after the primary had been held.

Justice Onnoghen ruled , “ I am satisfied that the plaintiff (appellant ) has proved that the 1 st defendant ( Hembe ) was not a member of the APC as at December 10 when the primary election was held.
“ Accordingly , he was not qualified to contest the said primary election as he was still a member of the PDP.

In view of the above position and the fact that only the plaintiff /appellant and Hembe were the candidates , who contested the Vandeikya /Knoshsha Federal Constituency seat in the House of Representatives, I enter judgment for the plaintiff /appellant . ”

http://punchng.com/scourt-sacks-taraba-senator-reps-member-hembe/

Returning two years of salaries, emoluments & allowances? WHAT WICKEDNESS! .