Faults IGP’s withdrawal of his security Exit not a threat to PDP –Abba Moro The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has spoken in defence of Hon. Aminu Tambuwal by insisting that he remains the Speaker of the House of Representatives even as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government fine-tunes plans to remove him following his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) last week. The umbrella union of all lawyers in the country also faulted the withdrawal of the embattled Speaker’s security aides by the acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Suleiman Abbah, declaring the action as illegal and further clarifying that the IGP has no such constitutional powers to determine the constitutionality or otherwise of Tambuwal’s defection and related issues. It would be recalled that Tambuwal has come under immense attack from the ruling PDP since he openly announced his defection to the APC on the floor of the House of Representatives last week with his picture as Speaker allegedly removed from the website of the National Assembly last week on the orders of the Federal Government. The position of the NBA was restated in a media interview by the President, Mr. Austin Alegeh (SAN), yesterday at the meeting of the Midwest Bar Forum held at Motel Benin Plaza at G.R.A. in Benin City, Edo State, which brought hundreds of lawyers together. Alegeh, who used the timeous prosecution of South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius for the murder of his girlfriend, Ms Reeva Steenkamp, as an example of judicial responsiveness, shared the blame for the crisis that resulted from the defection of Tambuwal to the Bench, which he faulted for contributing largely by its inability to adjudicate and effectively interpret on time the case pitching the New-PDP against the PDP. Alegeh said: “There is a constitutional provision for the removal of the Speaker. Before a Speaker can be removed, Section 68 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic has to be followed. Instead, we are yet to see that. The Speaker was duly elected by the majority of the House of Representatives. Since he was duly elected according to the Constitution, it also prescribes how he can be removed. Our position in the NBA is that as at now, Hon. Aminu Tambuwal, remains the Speaker of the House of Representatives.” On the issue of withdrawal of his security aides by the acting Inspector-General of Police, who announced that he derived his powers from the same Constitution, Alegeh, who clarified that he was not speaking just because Tambuwal is a member of the union, said that “The Inspector-General of Police cannot determine the constitutionality of the Speaker’s defection. He is entitled to his security aides as long as he remains the Speaker of the House of Representatives.” Alegeh also threatened that the NBA might have to review the defence of kidnapping suspects in courts in the country especially as it has noted how the immediate past President, Mr. Okey Wali, was kidnapped and released after some days in detention and the kidnap and detention of some other members of the association all over the country. Alegeh said: “The legislative arms in prescribing life sentence and death penalty are trying to create some measures of discouragement for kidnapping. Lawyers have a duty to defend anybody who we accept to defend, whether the person is kidnapper, a drug pusher or a terrorist. Whatever the person may be, once a lawyer accepts the brief, he is bound to defend the person.” “However, certain branches of the NBA have taken a position not to defend kidnappers because of the scourge of kidnapping and the effects they have had on those branches. No matter what is happening, you have a duty to defend people. For us, the scourge of kidnapping is on the rise. Thank God for Okey Wali who was thankfully released after 15 days; there is Barrister Desmond Dudu of Sapele Branch, who is doing his 16th day in captivity. If this trend continues, the Bar would need to reconsider its position whether we would defend kidnappers or not.” He advised, however, that for Nigeria to effectively tackle kidnapping, the Federal Government would need to properly police the whole country. He concluded that apart from policing, the government should further ensure that kidnappers are caught and made to face the penalty for the crime whether it is death penalty, life imprisonment or ordinary prison term.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 05:58:36 +0000
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