The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, on Thursday, failed to swear-in Dorathy Mato, lawmaker whom the supreme court declared as the representative of Vandikwa/Konshisha federal constituency of Benue state.
The Supreme Court had on June 23, ruled that Hon. Herman Hembe, former chairman of the house committee on the federal capital terittory (FCT), did not win the ruling party’s ticket to represent the constituency. The court also ordered Hembe to refund all the salaries and allowances he had earned in two years.
Expectation that Mato would on Thursday be sworn-in at the floor of the lower chamber was dismissed as Speaker Yakubu Dogara did not administer the oath of office on her.
Reacting to the development, Maureen Acka, a lawmaker from the Benue state house of assembly, said Mato was a victim of alleged manipulation by Hembe.
“We all came in anticipation of this but they kept dilly-dallying,” she said.
“They asked to wait that they were coming and we all waited patiently, only for them to come out and nothing happened. Papers have been filled, and she has done all the things required of her. This is really strange… I just pray and hope that this is not some kind of a game because it will not be right. We know the law,” Acka said.
Meanwhile, Abdulrazak Namdas, spokesman of the house, told pressmen that it’s not true that the speaker has refused to swear Mato in because she is a woman.
Namdas stated that Mato would be sworn-in when all the necessary things have been done.
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