Senator Omo-Agege withdraws from resumption at Nigerian Senate

Contrary to the avowed intention to resume legislative session on Tuesday, senator Ovie Omo-Agege representing Delta central did not appear in plenary today.

The embattled lawmaker has premised his resumption on the high court judgement that vacated the suspension slammed on him by the hallowed chamber.

Omo-Agege was suspended over his comment allegedly tarnishing the image of the senate.

He, however, approached the court to challenge senate’s decision to suspend him.
When the court delivered judgement in his favour, he made declarations that he was going to be in plenary to continue to represent his constituents.

The Senate leadership has,however, reconsidered its position and decided late Monday night to comply with the judgement of the Federal High Court and do nothing to stop Senator Ovie Omo-Agege from his scheduled resumption.

The Senate stated, “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 leadership has been briefed by our lawyers on last Thursday’s judgement of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on whether the Senate has the legal authority to suspend a member for certain misconduct or not.

“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.

“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 determined on Wednesday, May 16, 2018, we shall therefore respect the subsisting High Court judgement and await the appellate court’s decision on the pending motion”.

However, Omo-Agege’s inability to resume as promised may not be unconnected with the pending determination of the application by the upper chamber for stay of execution of the judgement delivered in favour of the lawmaker.
Also, the forthcoming findings of the expanded senate and House of representatives investigation committee set up to unravel the circumstances that led to the invasion of the National Assembly and the snatching of the senate mace may not be favourable to Omo-Agege.