A High Court in Plateau has ordered that Abok Ayuba be reinstated as speaker of the state House of Assembly with immediate effect.
The presiding judge, Nafisa Musa, in her ruling on Monday, described Ayuba’s impeachment as illegal and held it null and void.
The court also awarded N1.5 million as the cost of litigation and N138,000 as the cost of filing the suit.
Ayuba had approached the court to file a suit to challenge his impeachment.
He asked the court to declare that his removal “as speaker of the Plateau state house of assembly by the votes of less than two-third majority of the 24 members which is, 16 members of the Plateau state house of assembly, was in violation of Section 92(2)(c) of the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, Order 7 rule 14 of the Plateau State House of Assembly Standing Orders 2021 as amended.”
Ayuba’s impeachment was led by eight lawmakers from the All Progressives and presided by the deputy speaker Saleh Yipmong on October 28, 2021, while members of the Peoples Democratic Party were prevented from gaining access to the assembly complex.
A member representing Pengana constituency under the APC, Yakubu Sanda, was announced the new speaker.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that Ayuba was elected speaker of the 9th Plateau State House of Assembly in 2019.
Ayuba was a first-time member of the Assembly elected from Jos East Constituency on the platform of All Progressives Congress in 2019. He was a 500 level law student at the University of Jos when he was elected. He was controversially impeached by members of the house of Assembly on the 28th October, 2021.
His election as the speaker of the house at the age of 33 was hailed nationwide as the representative of the youth.
Ayuba was nominated for the speakership election by Ibrahim Baba Hassan (a former Deputy Speaker of the House) from Jos North and was seconded by a first-time member of the house, Esther Dusu representing Jos Norh-West.
A ranking member of the assembly who had been in the house since 1999 was widely rumoured to emerge speaker but members of the house unanimously elected Ayuba waving all speakership electoral requirements to allow his emergence.
