Date: 2012-06-03

Kwara ACN has urged the security agents at the state House of Assembly to henceforth prevent the sacked PDP lawmaker, Mr Salman Abdulfattah (Ilorin North/West constituency), from further appearance on the floor of the House. The party also urged the INEC to "as a matter of urgency announce the date for the rerun election as ordered by the court, as further delay would imply that the commission is complicit in the PDP's bid to frustrate the law."

Abdulfattah has since been sacked by the Court of Appeal in Ilorin following a petition by ACN's Abdul Kayode Aiyelabegan. A PDP's motion in April praying the court to review the judgment was also dismissed penultimate Monday, but Abdulfattah has continued to attend House sittings.

Upholding the objection of ACN that the PDP's motion was an abuse of the court process, Justice Ita Mbamba of the Appeal Court held: "Applicant (PDP, Abdulfattah)'s motion of April 30, 2012 is a gross abuse of the process of court. Apart from trying to re-litigate a matter that has been heard and concluded, and subjecting the adverse party (ACN and Aiyelabegan) to irritation and annoyance, frustrating or delaying the realisation of the justice of the case, the application is a stranger to the law, and appears to be targeted at blackmailing the judgment, in the absence of any further right of appeal."

ACN Chairman in Kwara State, Kayode Olawepo, said in a statement issued in Ilorin on Sunday that the continued disrespect for the court ruling threatens public peace and should be forestalled by the security agencies. "We have written several letters to the House leadership on this matter but they have treated the correspondences as a non-issue. This underscores their disrespect for law and the judiciary, and such attitude must be resisted by all lovers of democracy and rule of law," Olawepo said.