A SUIT seeking to sack Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle over his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been struck out.
The suit, which was filed by some members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was struck out by the Federal High in Gusau on Monday.
The plaintiffs were Bashir Saleh, Abduhamid Haruna and Ibrahim Turaki, while the governor, the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation were listed as the defendants.
Although he ruled that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the suit, presiding judge Justice Bappa Aliyu maintained that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria did not prohibit a governor from defecting from a party.
The judge noted that the suit should have been filed before an election petitions tribunal, noting that the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to handle it.
Aliyu added that it was only an election petitions tribunal or the state House of Assembly that had the power to remove a sitting governor.
He further observed that the constitutions of the APC and PDP did not make it unlawful for a governor to defect to any other constitutionally recognised political party operating within Nigeria.
The judge subsequently ordered the plaintiffs to pay N1 million to each of the four defendants as compensation for wasting their time with a frivolous suit.
Matawalle had last June defected to the APC, leaving behind his Deputy Mahdi Aliyu in the PDP.
Against a subsisting court judgment, the State House of Assembly on Friday began an impeachment process against the deputy governor, Aliyu.
Aliyu is being accused of “insubordination, abuse of office, and criminal self-enrichment.”
The PDP has warned against the move to impeach the deputy governor.
The party described the impeachment as ‘illegal’ and ‘a recipe for crisis’ in the state.
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