The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday
tackled the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice,
Abubakar Malami SAN, over the action of the latter asking an appointee for
Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights commission, NHRC, Tony Ojukwu
to assume office without clearance from the upper legislative chamber.
It also mandated its committee on
judiciary to investigate the matter.
This development was sequel to an
adopted order 14 invoked by Senator Dino Melaye in plenary where he picked
holes with the perceived unconstitutional action by Malami and, sought the necessary
action of the Senate.
In his explanation, Melaye stated
that discrete investigation revealed that Ojukwu had resumed office even
without confirmation from the Senate.
He emphasized that Nigeria was
not a Banana Republic and that President Muhammadu Buhari upon assumption of
office on May 29 , 2015 swore to respect the constitution and uphold the rule
of law.
It was the position of the
lawmakers that all nominees by the government must adhere to the constitution
or have their appointments invalidated ab initio.
They insisted that a situation
where an appointee of government will assume office before confirmation would
not be condoned.
Melaye said the AGF was supposed
to be an unbiased enforcer of the law as the nation’s chief law enforcer, not to
mention his background as a lawyer.
It would be recalled that the
Senate had placed an embargo on subsequent confirmation of appointments made by
President Muhammadu Buhari.
This followed an existing
standoff it has with the presidency over its rejections to confirm Ibrahim Magu
as substantive chairman of the Economic and financial crimes commission, EFCC.
Yet, Magu has been retained as the EFCC’s acting chairman.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com