Saturday, November 1, 2025 - Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja has sacked House of Representatives member, Abubakar Gummi for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Gummi represents the Gummi/Bukkuyum Federal Constituency of
Zamfara in the House of Representatives
According to Guardian, a judgment delivered on Thursday,
October 30, Justice Egwuatu, restrained the Speaker, House of Representatives,
Tajudeen Abbas, from further recognizing Gummi as a member representing Gummi/
Bukkuyum Federal Constituency. The judge also made an order directing the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election to
fill the vacancy for the constituency within 30 days from the day of the
judgment.
The suit, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1803/2024, was filed by the PDP
and its state’s Chairman, Jamilu Jibomagayaki, as 1st and 2nd plaintiffs.
The duo, in the originating summons dated November 28 but
filed on November 29, 2024, by Ibrahim Bawa, SAN, had sued Hon. Abubakar
Suleiman Gummi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and INEC as the 1st to
3rd defendants, respectively.
The plaintiffs had set out four questions for determination
and sought nine reliefs.
They asked whether, having regard to the provision of
Section 68 (1) (9) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), it was not
unconstitutional for Gummies to retain his seat as a member in the house. They
said he defected from the PDP, which had sponsored him for the election to the
Gummi/Bukkuyum Federal Constituency, to the APC, when there was no division in
the party, among other questions.
One of the reliefs sought was a declaration that it was
unconstitutional for the speaker to refuse/fail to declare Gummi’s seat vacant.
Gummi, in his response through his lawyer, filed a notice of
preliminary objection and a counter affidavit. The lawmaker argued that his
decampment was due to the crisis within the party.
He stated, contrary to the plaintiffs’ deposition, that the
lingering, unresolved internal and external crises, both at the national level
and in his constituency, are the reasons for his defection from the party to
the APC.
Gummi said the crisis resulted in a state in which he could
no longer properly represent his constituents or ensure that they all benefited
from the shared distribution of democracy’s dividends within the bounds of law,
without undue interference from anyone or anything.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Egwuatu granted all the
plaintiffs’ reliefs. The judge condemned the attitude of some politicians who
see defection as a normal practice.
“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 right 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 electorate. And that is what Section 68 (1) (g)
of the Constitution has done. Political prostitution must not be rewarded. In
total, I resolve all the issues in favour of the plaintiffs and against the
defendants,” Justice Egwuatu said
The judge, therefore, ordered that Gummi, having defected
from PDP to APC “before the expiration of the period the house was elected,
automatically loses his seat as a member of the House of Representatives.”
He made an order restraining Gummi from further receiving
monies as salaries, allowances or whatsoever called in his capacity as a member
representing the constituency.
He also made an order directing the lawmaker to refund to
the Federal Government all monies collected as salaries, allowances or
whatsoever called as a member representing the constituency from Oct. 30, 2024,
to the date of 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 of this court,” he said.
Justice Egwuatu consequently awarded a fine of N500,000 in
favour of the plaintiffs and against the defendants.
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