The Federal High Court in Abuja has declared the House of Representatives seat for Gummi/Bukkuyum Federal Constituency in Zamfara State vacant after lawmaker Abubakar Gummi defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Justice Obiora Egwuatu, in a landmark ruling, sacked Gummi and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election within 30 days.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the judge also restrained House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas from recognising Gummi as a member and barred him from receiving salaries or allowances from October 30, 2024, mandating a full refund of all monies collected during the defection period.
Granting all reliefs sought by the PDP and its Zamfara Chairman, Jamilu Jibomagayaki, Justice Egwuatu condemned the rising trend of political defections, stressing that lawmakers must not carry electoral mandates to rival parties.
“Before I take my fingers off the keyboard, let me just add that politicians should respect the wishes of the electorates that elected them into office.
“A situation where the electorates have made their choices between different political parties and their candidates based on the manifestos and marketability of such a political party, it is legally and morally wrong for such a politician to abandon the party under which platform he or she was elected into office and move to a rival party without relinquishing the mandate of his or her former party.
“If a person must decamp, don’t decamp with the mandate of the electorates.
“Don’t transfer the votes garnered on the platform of one party to another party.
“A politician has no such right to transfer votes of a political party to another political party.
“The law must punish such moves by taking away the benefits bestowed upon the decampee politician by the electorate.
“And that is what Section 68 (1) (g) of the Constitution has done.
“Political prostitution must not be rewarded.”
The court held that Gummi, having defected “before the expiration of the period the house was elected, automatically loses his seat.” It ordered evidence of the refund filed within 30 days and imposed a N500,000 fine against the defendants.