The Federal High Court in Abuja Wednesday declined to stop the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara from appointing principal officers and standing committees for the House.
The order was similar to the ruling in favour of the Senate President, Bukola Saraiki on Tuesday, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, while ruling yesterday in an ex-parte motion brought by Hon. Abubakar Lado and Hon. Olanipekun Jimoh seeking to stop the speaker from appointing principal officers, held that the issue is a domestic affair of the House of Representatives.
Justice Kolawole noted that the court can only intervene when there is substantial infraction on the 1999 Constitution and that for now there has been no breach of the constitution.
He re-emphasised that it was not the duty of the court to choose principal officer for the National Assembly because it has its own machinery.
According to him, the court will not allow itself to be used as a platform by aggrieved members to get what they should have canvassed on the floor of the House.
The court, he noted, is not a supervising institution for the National Assembly on account of separation of powers and that there was no evidence before the court that the constitution had been breached.
He therefore refused the application in its entirety.
Ruling on the case, Justice Kolawole directed that the defendants in the substantive suit which include the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker, the Clerk of the House and the Clerk of the National Assembly be put on notice and served with the originating summon.
The case was adjourned to August 12 before Justice Adeniyi Ademola.
