Femi Falana, human rights lawyer,
says the senate “did not get it right” by tagging Ibrahim Idris,
inspector-general of police (IGP), “an enemy of democracy”.
Following Idris’ failure to appear
before the senate on three different occasions, the upper legislative chamber
said he is unfit to hold any public office.
The IGP had been summoned over
the growing insecurity in the country and also for the case of Dino Melaye,
senator representing Kogi west, who is currently in police custody.
Idris sent a representative in
his place on two of those occasions but the senate turned back the proxy.
Speaking on a Channels TV
programme on Thursday, Falana said the senate made a mistake by bringing
Melaye’s case into the picture.
He said even with the killings,
IGP is not the right person to summon, rather, the minister of interior and the
attorney-general of the federation.
He said: “By virtue of section 67
(2) of the constitution, either chamber can summon a minister when the affairs
of his or her ministry are under consideration. The only other occasion a
public officer can be summoned by the national assembly is when proceedings are
ongoing to expose corruption and when a law is being debated either with a view
to amending it or to have a new law entirely.
“But there is no such powers
given to the national assembly by the constitution to summon everybody.”
Asked by the programme’s anchor
if the senate has the power to summon the president, Falana replied: “No.
Section 67 (1) has given the president the discretion to address the national
assembly either jointly or separately, on any matter of national importance.
The president or the governor of a state cannot be summoned; that is the
constitution.
“The national assembly has my
sympathy, but what can be done? The constitutional review is ongoing. You can
deal with this lacuna, or the gaps you have identified.
“But don’t go outside the limit
of your powers. When you do that, you ridicule the constitution. And that is
what is going on.”
He added that even though he
condemned the arraignment of Melaye while on a stretcher, he had told the
lawmakers to not “individualise problems of police brutality”.
“When you do that, you lose
public support. It is the height of hypocrisy to say because the police has
brutalised our member, the IG must come. What of thousands of Nigerians that
are brutalised daily?” he asked.
“Don’t single out the harassment
of your member to summon the IG, that is where they lost it. They shouldn’t
have mixed Melaye’s case with the killings.
“As far as the constitution is
concerned, the person to summon is the minister of interior and the
attorney-general, and they have the powers to do that. The minister can be
summoned but there is no provision for summoning the IG or the customs boss to
appear in one uniform or the other, it is not there.”
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