The Supreme Court yesterday struck out the suit instituted by a sacked member of the House of Representatives, Herman Hembe, asking it to reverse its order which sacked him as a member representing Vandikya/Konshisha constituency, Benue state.
The apex court, led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, stood on the judgement that had earlier sacked him as a member of the House of Representatives.
The court urged the Speaker, Yakubu Dogora, to comply with its judgement, saying “doing otherwise will spell doom in the nation’s democracy.”
Re-instating the earlier order of the court, Onnoghen ordered Hembe to pay the sum of N1 million as cost in favour of Mrs. Dorothy Mato.
The Supreme Court had, on June 25, sacked Hembe and Senator Sani Abubakar Danladi Representing Taraba state and ordered that Mrs. Dorothy Mato and Alhaji Shuaibu Isa Lau be sworn in immediately.
Also, the court ordered Hembe to refund all monies collected as salaries and allowances in the last two years.
The court held that Mrs. Mato, who won the All Progressive Congress Party (APC) ticket for the constituency was the rightful candidate.
Not satisfied with the order of the apex court, Hembe rather filed a motion on notice asking the Supreme Court to reverse itself.
Presenting the motion, yesterday, Counsel to Hembe, Paul Erokoro, said it was asking the court to correct some errors and accidental slip contained in the judgement of the court.
He insisted that motion was for an order of the court to correct and amend an error in the judgement of the court in order to reflect the true intention of the said judgement.
He noted that the court was wrong to have invoked Section 22 of the Act to hear the appeal instead of sending it back to the tribunal for re-trial
Reacting, Counsel to Mato, Emeka Etiaba (SAN), said the motion constituted an abuse of the court process.
In his ruling, Justice Onnoghen insisted that the court “cannot revere itself as it has no jurisdiction to sit on appeal over its judgement.”
He also reminded him that the matter was a pre-election matter which had a time frame.
