Court sacks two senators, eight Reps member from Katsina

The Court of Appeal on Friday upheld the
decision of the Federal High Court which
voided the INEC Certificates of Return of 10
defunct CPC lawmakers from Katsina State. Those whose certificates were voided are Sen.
Abubakar Yar’adua; Katsina Central, Sen. Hadi
Sirika, Katsina North; Reps. Ahmed Kaita and
Salisu Salisco. The others are: Reps. Umar Abubakar, Salisu
Daura, Isa Doro, Sani Mashi, Abbas Machika and
Mansur Funtua. Justice Jimi Bada, who delivered the judgment
in Abuja, held that the leadership of the
National Assembly erred by accepting to
swear-in the appellants in spite of a subsisting
court order. Bada said that the Federal High Court was right
to have dismissed the objection raised by the
appellants “The certificate of returns issued to the
appellants is a nullity as INEC issued them
without order from any court or tribunal,’’ he
said. Abdu Yandoma and Ahmad Sani, Murtala Isa,
Muntari Dandutse, Musa Salisu, Aminu Ashiru,
Umar Katsayal, Muhammad Tukur, Tasi’u
Doguro, and Abdu Dankama challenged the
issuance of the certificates of return to the
appellants. The two senators and eight serving members
of the House of Representatives appealed to
the Court of Appeal to set aside the decision of
the lower court. They had urged the appellate court to set aside
the decision that voided the certificates of
return issued to them by INEC in December
2011.