A Federal High Court in Abuja has sacked Yakubu Dogara, from the House of Representatives and declared his seat vacant for defecting to the All Progressives Congress ( APC)
Dogara who represents Dass/ Tafawa Balewa/Bogoro Federal Constituency of Bauchi State, was the speaker of House of Representatives between 2015/2019.
While delivering Judgement in the High Court sitting in Abuja, Justice Donatus Okorowo declared that having defected from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressives Congress ( APC) Dogara was no longer qualified to occupy the seat by virtue of section 68(1)(g) of the Constitution.
Justice Okorowo aligned with the argument of the PDP that by defecting from the party that sponsored him to the Ninth National Assembly before the expiration of his tenure, Dogara ought to vacant the seat as he was no longer qualified to partake in the activities of the Lower House. The Judge who held that the action of the lawmaker is prohibited by law, agreed that the aim of section 68 (1)(g) was to check political prostitution among legislators.
“The judgement is therefore given in favour of the plaintiffs thereby granted the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs’ he declared. Dogara defected to All Progressives Congress (APC) after winning his re-election under the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019.
Dogara had on July 24, 2020 dumped the PDP and returned to his former party, All Progressives Congress (APC), And had earlier in 2018 dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as a result of political confrontation with his kinsmen.
