Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit seeking to force Senate President Bukola Saraki, Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and 52 other federal lawmakers out of their seats over defection to other parties.
A civil society organisation, Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), had instituted the suit and prayed the court to sack them for defecting from the political parties which sponsored their elections to others in 2018.
Justice Okon Abang struck out the case on Friday on the grounds that LEDAP had no locus standi to initiate the suit.
Former minority leader, Godswill Akpabio, was also listed in the suit.
Abang ruled that though LEDAP was a registered corporate body under the Company and Allied Matters Act, it does not have the right to sue on behalf of the public.
He also ruled that LEDAP’s failure to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC) and Action Democratic Congress (ADC) which sponsored the elections of the defector legislators, was fatal to the suit.
