Senate bows, okays Omo-Agege’s resumption

The senate says Ovie Omo-Agege, senator representing Delta central, will not be prevented from resuming on Tuesday.

Sabi Abdullahi, spokesman of the upper legislative chamber, said this on Monday while reacting to the court judgement which voided the suspension of Omo-Agege.

Omo-Agege had gone to court to challenge his 90 legislative days suspension by the senate and the court in its ruling declared the action unconstitutional, saying that the senate could not suspend a member beyond 12 days .

His suspension was based on is comment that amendment to section 25 of the electoral act, 2010 (as amended), bordering on reordering of elections sequence was targeted at President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a statement, Abdullahi said as an institution that has regards for the court, Omo-Agege would be given access to the red chamber on Tuesday.

“The senate leadership has been briefed by our lawyers on last Thursday judgement of the federal high court, Abuja, on whether the Senate has the legal authority to suspend a member for certain misconduct or not,” the statement read.

“We have equally filed an appeal against the judgement of the court and a motion for stay of execution of the judgement at the court of appeal.

“As an institution that obeys the law and court orders, the Senate has decided that it will comply with the judgement of the federal high court and do nothing to stop Senator Ovie Omo-Agege from resuming in his office and at plenary from tomorrow May 15, 2018, pending the determination of the application for stay of execution.

“The senate has been advised that since the motion for stay of execution of the Thursday (May 10, 2018) judgement shall be heard and possibly determine on Wednesday, May 16, 2018, we shall therefore respect the subsisting high court judgement and await the appellate court decision on the pending motion.”