Abuja, NIGERIA — The Federal High Court in Abuja has removed Hon. Abubakar Gummi from the House of Representatives for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC), in a landmark judgment that sternly condemned the growing culture of political defection in Nigeria.
Gummi, who represented the Gummi/Bukkuyum Federal Constituency of Zamfara State, was ordered to vacate his seat immediately, as Justice Obiora Egwuatu declared that his defection violated the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
In the ruling, Justice Egwuatu also restrained the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, from further recognising Gummi as a member representing the constituency.
The court further directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election to fill the vacant seat within 30 days from the date of judgment.
Although the judgment was delivered on Thursday, the certified true copy (CTC) was made available to journalists on Friday.
The suit, FHC/ABJ/CS/1803/2024, was filed by the PDP and its Zamfara State Chairman, Jamilu Jibomagayaki, as the 1st and 2nd plaintiffs. They were represented by Ibrahim Bawa, SAN. The defendants were listed as Hon. Abubakar Suleiman Gummi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and INEC, as 1st to 3rd defendants respectively.
The plaintiffs, in the originating summons dated November 28 but filed November 29, 2024, asked the court to determine whether, under Section 68(1)(g) of the Constitution, it was constitutional for Gummi to retain his seat after defecting to another party when there was no division in the PDP.
Among the reliefs sought was a declaration that the Speaker’s failure to declare Gummi’s seat vacant was unconstitutional.
In his defence, Gummi, through his lawyer, filed a preliminary objection and counter affidavit, arguing that his defection was necessitated by an internal crisis within the PDP both at the national level and in his constituency.
He claimed that the crisis had reached a point where he could no longer effectively represent his constituents or deliver the dividends of democracy without undue interference.
However, Justice Egwuatu dismissed Gummi’s argument, holding that there was no verifiable evidence of any division within the PDP to justify his defection.
Delivering a scathing rebuke against the rampant culture of political cross-carpeting, the judge stated:
“Before I take my fingers off the keyboard, let me just add that politicians should respect the wishes of the electorates that elected them into office.
A situation where the electorates have made their choices between different political parties and their candidates based on the manifestos and marketability of such a political party, it is legally and morally wrong for such a politician to abandon the party under which platform he or she was elected into office and move to a rival party without relinquishing the mandate of his or her former party.
If a person must decamp, don’t decamp with the mandate of the electorates. Don’t transfer the votes garnered on the platform of one party to another party. A politician has no such rights to transfer votes of a political party to another political party. The law must punish such moves by taking away the benefits bestowed upon the decampee politician by the electorates.
And that is what Section 68(1)(g) of the Constitution has done. Political prostitution must not be rewarded.”
In his final orders, Justice Egwuatu held that Gummi, having defected from the PDP to the APC before the expiration of his tenure, “automatically loses his seat as a member of the House of Representatives.”
The court also restrained Gummi from receiving any further salaries, allowances, or benefits in his former capacity and ordered him to refund all monies collected from October 30, 2024, to the date of the judgment.
“An order is made directing that the evidence of the refund of all monies collected as salaries, allowances or howsoever called be filed in the registry of this court within 30 days of the judgment,” the judge ruled.
Additionally, Justice Egwuatu awarded N500,000 in costs against the defendants and in favour of the PDP.
The judgment has been widely described as a strong warning to defectors and party-hoppers, reinforcing judicial intolerance for what the court called “political prostitution” and reaffirming the constitutional principle that the mandate belongs to the party, not the individual.
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