Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana
(SAN), has asked President Goodluck Jonathan to ignore a call by a First
Republic minister and prominent Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, to
remove the governors of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, on the account
of subsisting emergency rule in the states.
Falana said in a statement on Tuesday
that the call was diversionary and the act of removing elected governors
or suspending democratic institutions during emergency rule in a state
was illegal.
Falana said such call should be taken
seriously because it came from a personality like Clark “who wields
enormous influence around the presidency”.
He therefore urged the President to shun
such advice by “people with vested political agenda to resort to
undemocratic tactics associated with military dictators”.
He said, “As Nigeria has successfully
replaced autocracy with democracy all actions of the government have to
be conducted in strict compliance with the tenets of the rule of law.
“In view of the clear provision of the
Constitution on the vexed issue of a state of emergency I am compelled
to urge the President to ignore the illegal and unconstitutional call
for the removal of the governors of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.”
Clark had been quoted to have said that,
“There is nothing like partial declaration of a state of emergency in
the 1999 Constitution; what section 305 (c) of the Constitution
contemplates is the recourse to ‘extraordinary measures to restore
peace’ and security where there is a breakdown of public order and
public safety.
“This in effect means that all
democratic institution should be suspended to permit the military
exercise full control until peace and order returns”.
But Falana said that nothing in section
305 of the constitution referred to by Clark empowered the President to
suspend democratic institutions in a state under emergency rule.
Falana said, “With profound respect to
the elder statesman, Section 305 of the Constitution which empowers the
President to declare a state of emergency in any part of the country
does not make any provision, expressly or impliedly, for the removal of
elected democratic structures.
“In other words, the power of the
President, to take ‘extraordinary measures to restore peace and
security’ under a state of emergency does not include the removal of
elected public officers or the dissolution of democratic structures.
“In any case, state governors cannot be
held vicariously liable for the inability of the President and
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to stem the rising wave of
insurgency in the country.”
He pointed out that the Ijaw leader was
unable to point to any law or decided court case to justify his stand in
enjoining “President Jonathan to follow the bad example of President
Obasanjo”.
Falana said the suspension of the then
Governor of Plateau State and the Acting Governor of Ekiti State for six
months by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo during his tenure as President was
“in utter violation of the Constitution”.
He added, “That was an era of executive recklessness, which has been consigned to the dustbin of history.
“Assuming without conceding that
President Obasanjo was right is Chief Clark suggesting, by any stretch
of imagination, that if the Federation is waging a war against another
country leading to the imposition of emergency rule in the entire land
the President should vacate office for a retired General to take over
and run the country like a Sole Administrator?”
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