A Federal High Court in Abuja has sacked former Speaker Yakubu Dogara from the House of Representatives and declared his seat vacant.
Dogara, who represents Bogoro/Dass Federal constituency of Bauchi State, was the Speaker of the House of Representatives between 2015 and 2019.
The judge, D.U. Okorowo, on Friday, ruled that Dogara’s defection from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) was wrong and meant he should vacate the legislative seat.
Dogara defected to the APC after winning his re-election under the PDP in 2019
His frosty relationship with his state governor, Bala Mohammed, was one of the main reasons he ditched the PDP which he joined less than five years ago and dumped on .July 24, 2020.
Dogara was elected speaker on the APC platform in 2015. He decamped, alongside dozens of other lawmakers, to the PDP in the build-up to the 2019 general election.
He won his re-election as a lawmaker on the PDP platform but did not contest the speaker’s position as the APC won majority seats in the parliament.
After his meeting with President Buhari on July 27, 2020, the head of APC’s interim management committee, Mala Buni, who also attended the meeting, said the President was pleased with Dogara’s defection.
