The Supreme Court on Friday
ordered a member of House of
Representatives representing
Akure South/North Federal
Constituency of Ondo State, Ifedayo
Abegunde, to vacate his seat on
account of his defection from the
Labour Party, which sponsored his
election.
Abegunde defected from the LP to
the now defunct Action Congress of
Nigeria in 2011.
In a unanimous decision by the
seven-man panel led by the Chief
Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud
Mohammed, the apex court held
that a legislator’s defection to
another party could only be
justified if there was a division in
the national structures which
incapacitated the party that
sponsored his election, to function.
The apex court held that
Abegunde’s defection could not be
justified since his excuse of
purported division in the Labour
Party was not in existence at the
national level of the party.
The court noted that the “division”
or “factionalisation” of Labour Party
cited by Abegunde as his excuse for
abandoning the party was only at
the state level.
The judgement affirmed the
concurrent decisions of the Akure
divisions of the Federal High Court
and Court of Appeal, both of which
had earlier ruled that Abegunde’s
defection was unjustifiable.
Justice Musa Muhammad, who read
the lead judgement of the
Supreme Court on Friday, held that
only a “division that made it
“impossible or impracticable” for
the party to function by virtue of
the proviso in section 68(1)(g) of
the constitution “justifies” a
person’s defection to another
party.
In the opening of his judgement,
Justice Muhammad, said he had
earlier on March 19, 2015 dismissed
Abegunde’s appeal and the cross-
appeal filed with respect to the
case as both were “unmeritorious.”
He explained that the Friday’s
judgement was to give the reasons
for dismissing the appeal and the
cross appeal.
Justice Muhammad explained that
by virtue of the combined
provisions of section 68(1)(a) and
(g) as well as section 222(a), (e) and
(f) of the constitution, division in a
party at the state level did not
entitle a legislator to abandon the
party on whose platform he or she
contested and won his or her seat.
The apex court rejected the
argument canvassed by the counsel
for the appellant, Mr. Akin Ladipo, to
the effect that not “any division” in
a political party would entitle a
person to defect from a party who
sponsored his election without
having to lose his seat.
Abegunde had defected from LP to
the ACN in 2011 and in a bid to pre-
empt the party from recalling him;
he filed a suit at the Federal High
Court in Akure.
In its judgement delivered on May
30, 2012, the Federal High Court
dismissed Abegunde’s suit and the
counter-claim filed by some of the
defendants in the suit.
Dissatisfied with the judgement,
Abegunde further appealed to the
Court of Appeal, which in its
decision delivered on September
15, 2015, also dismissed the
appellant’s case.
Abegunde further appealed to the
Supreme Court and on March 19,
2015, the apex court dismissed the
appeal and the respondents’ cross-
appeals. The apex court only
explained the reasoning behind its
earlier March 19 decision.
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
