NIGERIA Bar Association, NBA and Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, weekend berated the Federal Government and the Police over Thursday’s removal of security aides of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, for defecting to All Progressives Congress, APC, describing the removal as unconstitutional and shameful.
Sulaiman Abba and tambuwal
This came as human rights activist and Lagos lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, petitioned the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, accusing him of bias in withdrawing security aides to Tambuwal, and cited other instances of police bias in the country.
NBA and NLC demanded immediate restoration of Tambuwal’s security aides and all the rights and privileges accruing to the Office of the Speaker, insisting that it was not about Tambuwal, but the office.
NLC demands restoration of security aides
NLC in a statement by its General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, titled “Nothing should happen to Tambuwal”, wondered why the security aides of Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo State and Ali Modu-Sheriff, former governor of Borno State respectively, were not removed when they defected to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, arguing that it was nothing short of double standard.
According to the statement; “We at the Nigeria Labour Congress are appalled by the withdrawal of security details of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal ostensibly because he had defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC. The act is shameful, distasteful, unconstitutional and demonstrates our parochial sense of power and very little knowledge of history.
No part of the Nigerian constitution says the Speaker of the House of Representatives should come from the majority party. Section 50(1)(b) only says, “There shall be a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who shall be elected by the members of that House from among themselves.
“In the Second Republic, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Edwin Ume-Ezeoke was elected from the ranks of NPP, not just an opposition party, but the third strong, after UPN and NPN. We have other precedents across the world.
We find it appropriate to cite the examples of Mimiko and Ali Modu-Sheriff, governor of Ondo State and former governor of Borno State, respectively. Their security details were not withdrawn when they defected to the PDP.
”In the light of the foregoing, we demand immediate restoration of Tambuwal’s security detail and all the rights and privileges that accrue to the Office of the Speaker.
It is not about Tambuwal, it is about the office which he holds. And in any case, only few, arguably, will contest that he has not discharged and acquitted himself as speaker. We would like to be on record that we will not fold our hands while little minds threaten our hard-earned democracy. Nothing should happen to Tambuwal.”
NBA berates Police
Similarly, speaking in Benin yesterday after a meeting of the Midwest Bar Forum, President of NBA, Augustine Alegeh, SAN, argued that the police were wrong by removing security aides attached to the speaker because the police lacked jurisdictional competence to determine whether or not there had been a breach of the constitution in the defection of the speaker to the APC.
According to him, “Section 68 of the constitution enumerates the procedure to be adopted by the National Assembly when a member defects from one party to another.
Unless and until that procedure is followed and adopted, Aminu Tambuwal remains speaker of the House of Representatives. We have stated clearly that the police lacks jurisdictional competence to determine whether or not there has been a breach of the constitution.
That duty is a function of the court. There is no provision in our constitution that says if you are in PDP or APC and you defect to another party you automatically lose your position of leadership of the House.
