Change In House Leadership: APC Members Vow To Disobey Court Order

apc-logoA major crisis is brewing in the House of Representatives as members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the lower chamber of the National Assembly, yesterday, vowed to disobey a valid court order restraining them from effecting leadership changes as the House resumes plenary today.

Justice Ademola Adeniyi of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday restrained members of the House of Representatives that defected to the APC from altering or changing the leadership of the House, pending the determination of a suit before the court. He subsequently directed members of the House to maintain their status-quo till February 3, when both the substantive suit and preliminary objections by the defendants will be heard.

However, rising from an emergency meeting late Monday evening, the lawmakers said they would change the House leadership today, barring any last minute change of decision, based on the majority status the opposition party now enjoys after the defection of 37 members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, last December.

The legislators insisted that the court order did not come to them as a surprise because they had prior knowledge of its outcome.

An APC lawmaker, Rep Ali Sani Madaki from Kano State, who attended yesterday’s meeting noted that the court lacked the jurisdiction to issue such an order, describing it as “a black market judgement”.

He said: “Hopefully, we will make the changes today at plenary since we now have the majority and are expecting more members to join us.

“Yes, the order has been issued, but our decision is that we will not accept this black market judgement.

“This is illegal, and as lawmakers we won’t accept any illegality. This will not be accepted anywhere in the world”.