Court warns against illegal impeachment of Senate President

An Abuja Federal High Court has warned against any unlawful move to impeach the Senate President, Bukola Saraki.

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba held that Saraki should not be illegally removed from office pending the determination of a suit filed by some Senators.

It would be recalled that Senator Rafiu Adebayo and Senator Isa Misau had instituted a case against the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris and the Department of State Services.

The lawmakers had dragged them before the court in a bid to restrain them from aiding the forceful removal or impeachment of Saraki.

When the matter was called, plaintiffs’ counsel, Emeka Etiaba informed the court that he had a motion exparte dated August 27, 2018, and filed same day.

The lawyer informed the court that the exparte motion which seeks an order of interim injunction restraining the defendants from “taking any untoward action or move to forcefully remove or impeach the Senate President from office.”

After listening to Etiaba’s submission, the trial judge, Dimgba held that “I believe the proper order to make is an order of accelerated hearing of the suit so that the court can consider and determine the merits of the substantive case expeditiously.

“Even though reliefs 1, 2, and 3, are not granted, needless to say, parties have been enjoined to respect the authority of the court and the integrity of the judicial process and should not take steps that will render the matter nugatory.”