SAN FRANCISCO, January 21, (THEWILL) – The bid by the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu to prevent Justice Adeniyi Ademola of a Federal High Court in Abuja from delivering his reserved judgment in a suit challenging the election of the leadership of the 8th Senate met a brick wall on Wednesday.
This was as the Judge insisted on going ahead to deliver his judgment on a date which would be communicated later to the parties through their lawyers, unless the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, directs otherwise.
Five senators of the All Progressives Congress, APC, are challenging the June 9, 2015 elections which produced Dr. Bukola Saraki as the Senate President and Ekweremadu as his deputy on the grounds that the elections, which took place on the day the 8th Senate was proclaimed, was allegedly conducted using a forged version of the Senate Standing Orders.
Senators Abu Ibrahim, Kabir Marafa, Ajayi Boroffice, Olugbenga Ashafa and Suleiman Hunkuyi are the plaintiffs in the suit with reference number FHC/ABJ/CS/651/2015. Ekweremadu is the second defendant in the suit with Saraki, the National Assembly, and two clerks of the National Assembly as the other defendants.
Four days after Justice Ademola heard the parties to the suit and reserved judgment in the case on December 14, 2015, Ekweremadu, a lawyer by training, initiated a move to stop the court from delivering its verdict. He accused the judge of bias via an application which he sent to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, asking for the reassignment of the case to another judge.
The Deputy Senate President, a Peoples Democratic Party member, in his application dated December 17, 2015 but filed on December 18, 2015, alleged that Justice Ademola was bias in the handling of the case due to his alleged closeness to the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
He further alleged in the petition which personally signed by him that the judge’s wife, Mrs. Olabowale Ademola, was recently appointed as the Head of Service in Lagos State due to his (Justice Ademola’s) relationship with Tinubu.
But while adjourning the case on Wednesday, Ademola ruled that “the court, having adopted parties’ written addresses on December 14, 2015, will give its judgment on a date that will be communicated to parties through their counsel unless the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court directs otherwise.”
Should Ekweremadu’s application against the presiding judge had sail through, it would amount to starting the case, which had been heard and reserved for judgment, afresh before a new judge.
