Kogi Assembly: Reps, AGF, IGP and Allegations of Illegalities

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It has been an absurd illegality in the Kogi House of Assembly, where only five out of 20, in the 25-members assembly, considered it lawful to impeach a sitting Speaker and install another.

Already, the House of Representatives, has pronounced this action as illegal and had taken over its legislative functions in line with the law, asking the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Solomon Arase, to seal up that Assembly Complex, but the Attorney General of the Federation and Justice minister, Abubakar Malami, is saying that the Reps are on the path of illegality. The five Kogi Assembly members who are benefiting from this crisis, share the opinion of the AGF, but the IGP, pretends not to know who among these parties is perpetrating illegality.

However, the Reps, which is obviously superior is bent on establishing that both the AGF, IGP and the five lawmakers are wrong.

Following the festering crisis in that House of Assembly, which is a fallout of the February 16 ‘impeachment’ of the Speaker, Momoh Jimoh-Lawal by the five members, the House of Reps, on Wednesday March 9, decided to take control of that Assembly. When fully constituted, the Kogi Assembly has 25 members.

However, as of February 16 when the said impeachment was pronounced, the House had 20 members, as the other five were sacked by electoral courts. This goes to say that five of the 20 members pronounced the removal of the speaker, and this was the immediate cause of the entire crisis. The issues here therefore, border on procedure and the right number to effect the impeachment, which are clear by common sense following the 1999 constitution, but technically they are unclear and would require judicial interpretations and interventions.

However, given its own powers under the constitution on such matters, the House of Representatives in its wisdom, on February 23, passed a resolution describing the action of the five legislators of the state as “unconstitutional, null and void.”

The resolution followed a motion brought by Karimi Sunday, Kogi Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The House adopted his motion and arguments and resolved that the five lawmakers failed to comply with the provisions of Section 92(1)(c) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). The House further resolved to invoke Section 11(4) of the same constitution if the Kogi lawmakers refused to revert to the status quo. As it were the acclaimed impeached Speaker, Jimoh-Lawal, has 15 out of the 20 members on his side, while the faction that claimed to have impeached him, has just five members, and has attempted to show strength by vehemently resisting the authority of the House of Assembly and House of Representatives. That five-man faction sees nothing wrong in what it has done, and of course, like it is often said, when you see a masquerade dancing outside in day time, someone in the bush is beating the drums.

The recent happenings have clarified that this crisis is orchestrated by the executive at the state led by the Governor, Yahaya Bello and Abuja is pleased too, giving these five men the impetus to freely take the laws into their hands with impunity. In spite of the warning by Reps, the five-man camp continued to see itself as the state legislature, carrying out same duties under security protections, while the 15-man camp also enforce its rights leading to anarchy in the state. Having satisfied the law and conscience that the protracted crisis in that state assembly did not allow legislative duties to take place, the Reps on March 9 made good its threat by taking over the legislative duties of the state and asked the IGP to deploy special police team from Abuja to Lokoja and seal off the Kogi assembly complex.

The Reps’ action followed the recommendation of a 10-man investigative panel chaired by the Deputy Whip of the House, Pally Iriase, who had earlier visited Kogi over the matter. Section 11(4), invoked by the Reps, states that, “At any time Malami Arase when any House of Assembly of a state is unable to perform its functions by reason of the situation prevailing in the state, the National Assembly may make such laws for the peace, order and good government of that state with respect to matters on which a House of Assembly may make laws as may appear to the National Assembly to be necessary or expedient until such time as the House of Assembly is able to resume its functions; and any such laws enacted by the National Assembly pursuant to this section shall have effect as if they were laws enacted by the House of Assembly of the state.” In view of the fact that the constitution clearly required National Assembly to do the taking over, this resolution of the House was not respected by the factions, which still sat, especially that of the 5-man, which claimed it is in court.

The IGP also for weeks, did not obey the directive of the House, until the Senate finally concurred with Reps in a communication it sent to the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, which was read on Wednesday March 23, before proceeding on the Easter recess. Few days after March 30, when the police complied and sealed the Kogi assembly complex, the Attorney -General of the Federation, AGF, Malami, was reported to have ordered the IGP to reopen the complex, that the House of Reps was acting in illegality. Upon resumption from the Easter recess last Tuesday, Ossai Nicholas Ossai, brought a point of order, Order VI, Rule 19, under privilege before the House, notifying it of the opposing role the AGF was playing against the House’s resolution. Ossai recalled that the House passed a resolution on Tuesday February 23, 2016, (HOUR. 44/2016) on the crisis in the Kogi state House of Assembly and consequently resolved to exercise its constitutional power by taking over the legislative business of the assembly, recalling also that the Senate subsequently concurred with the action of the Reps. He noted that a recent media report quoted the AGF as stating that the action of the National Assembly was unconstitutional and unwarranted. He described the declaration of the AGF on the matter as a breach of his privilege and that of the House, and therefore sought the leave of the house to present a motion on it forthwith. The leave was granted by Mr. Speaker, leading to Ossai’s motion on the dclaration by the AGF concerning the resolution of the House of Reps on the crisis in the Kogi state House of Assembly.

The lawmaker noted that on Tuesday February 23, the House considered a motion on the illegal removal of the Speaker of the Kogi House of Assembly and, pursuant to Section 11 of the 1999 constitution (as amended), resolved inter allia, to, set up and delegated a five- man fact finding delegation to look into the affairs of the Kogi assembly with the aim of restoring the House to sanity. He noted also that on Wednesday March 9, the House considered the report of the delegation and approved the recommendations as amended. The lawmaker expressed the concern over the statement credited to Malami, where he also advised the IGP to unseal the Kogi Assembly complex against the express directive of the National Assembly. Ossai told the House that the outburst of the AGF was a direct attack on the National Assembly and constituted authority. His motion raised serious debate as lawmakers took turn to examine the action of Malami vis-a-vis his position as a minister and AGF, as well as background as a lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN. Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamilla was quite offended by the AGF’s action, which he said that he, the AGF, based his action on section 11, on the security of the state and that he was absolutely wrong. Gbajabiamila said that the section was clear enough, that once any state assembly is unable to perform its functions, then the NASS should, and must take over. He said that sections 96 and 100 were clear on quorum, which the five members did not form and so could not conduct government business and pass bills.

Also, Minority Leader, Leo Ogor said principle of fair hearing should be followed, saying, “let him come and face the committee on judiciary as the number one law officer, to uphold his claims that what the 5-man faction did was right. Throughout the debate, Speaker Dogara looked astonished that a lawyer in the person of Abubakar Malami could stoop so low to misrepresent law, the grand norm at that, which he swore to protect as number one law officer of the country. This made him to say, “we have to determine whether the AGF actually authored this letter. I sincerely doubt it.” For Aliyu Magaji, “if we have this man as legal adviser to Mr. President, then there is a problem.”

Another member was of the view that the prayers brought by Ossai Ossai, were too lenient, saying that he should come here to answer questions doesn’t hold water. “My prayer is that the AGF should be sacked”, he said to underscore the gravity of Malami’s offence. Another Lawmaker said, “He is working against the constitution which he swore to defend. It is now clear that the office of AGF should be separated from Minister of Justice.” Solomon Arase is not spared in this rebellion against the House as members are angry that it took the IGP so many weeks to obey the resolution of this House adding, “ he should be invited to explain whether he approached the AGF for advice on the matter.”

Credit:  National Mirror


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