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Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu
Maikasuwa (R) Swearing-In the Senate President, Bukola Saraki at the
Inauguration of the 8th National Assembly in Abuja
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National
Assembly Clerk Salisu Maikasuwa, senators and any other person found culpable
in the illegal amendment to the Senate Standing Order should be prosecuted,
some eminent lawyers said yesterday. The police have declared the Standing Order,
which was used for the June 9 election of Dr. Bukola Saraki as the President of
the Eighth Senate, a forgery.
Prof. Itsay Sagay, Yusuf Ali (SAN) and
Monday Ubani yesterday called for the prosecution of those who had a hand in
the alteration of the standing rules applied to pick the Senate President, his
deputy and four principal officers. But the Attorney-General and Minister of
Justice in the defunct Second Republic, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), held a
contrary position.
The Nation reports:
He argued that the police lacked the
power to meddle in what he described as the Senate’s internal affairs.
Sagay said he was not surprised by Maikasuwa’s
alleged involvement in the matter. He said the Clerk should be suspended
immediately and be put on trial. His words: “Forgery is forgery. It is a crime.
And it is a crime that should be prosecuted. As far as I am concerned, the first
thing is that he should be suspended as clerk of the NASS and then should be
prosecuted for forgery.
“It has always been my view from the very first
day (June 9, 2015) that Saraki fraudulently got himself into Senate presidency,
that it would not have been possible without him compromising the clerk of the
NASS.
“It was the clerk himself who convoked the
little crowd of PDP senators that were there and APC senators that were there.
“In other words, he was the one who got the
proceedings started when over 60 of the APC senators were away somewhere else.
I am, therefore, not surprised that he was involved in altering the rules of
the Senate illegally.”
Ali urged law enforcement agencies to do their
work.
“If a crime has been committed by
anybody, the rule of law should take its course,” he said, adding that
the police know the appropriate organ to report to if there is need to
prosecute the suspects.
Former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja
branch, Monday Ubani also maintained that all those found culpable in the
alleged forgery should be prosecuted.
Ubani said: “The only thing we expect now is
that those involved be arraigned and charged to court. Even if they are
senators and are involved in the forgery case, we expect that the appropriate
agency should take up that matter and prosecute them and to also ensure
that the case is tried speedily and concluded because it is very important to
us.”
Ubani cited China where he said the rule of law
will be allowed to take its full course in such a matter to buttress his view
for the prosecution of those found culpable.
“China is not a godly nation. They don’t go to
church on Sunday. But do you know why China is working today? It is because
they allow their laws to work. The rule of law is supreme in China”, he noted,
emphasising, “as long as we don’t allow our laws to work, Nigeria would not
grow.”
“The moment we begin to obey our laws and do
the right thing with our laws, Nigeria will begin to work. Let whoever is
culpable be charged to court and be prosecuted successfully.”
Second Republic lawmaker Dr Junaid Muhammed
said if the police report was correct, Maikasuwa should face the music.
Muhammed, a House of Representatives member in
the Second Republic, condemned the clerk for his involvement in the conspiracy
against due process in the National Assembly.
“Maikasuwa, as a civil servant should have
acted in a manner that will support a vibrant institution like the National
Assembly, but he has undermined the process of the second era of government,”
Muhammed said.
He advised Maikasuwa to go back to his
state if he want to be a politician. “What he did to undermine the
democratic process is treachery,” Muhammed said.
However, to a former Attorney-General and
Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), the police lack the power to
meddle in the Senate’s internal affairs.
Akinjide is in doubt if any lawmaker can be
prosecuted on the basis of the police report.
He said: “It would have been better to first
see the police report and rules which governs the Senate. But don’t forget, the
National Assembly is sovereign. You cannot mix National Assembly rules with
party rules. They are two different things. I was in parliament for two terms
and I know that party rules are different from parliament rules.
“If they break the rules of the National
Assembly, they have not committed any offence. Two, this is not a matter for
the police. The National Assembly is sovereign, so it is not a matter the
police should be investigating.
“It will be absurd in the
House of Commons in London or parliament in America for the police to
investigate what they did well or didn’t do well. With the greatest respect to
the police, I think they are wrong in what they’re doing.”
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