Attempts this morning by officers of the Nigeria Police Force, Department of State Security and the Nigeria Army to forcibly lockout Honourable Aminu Tambuwal from the House of Representatives is the height of executive lawlessness and rascality.
That the Speaker abandoned the party on which he was elected Speaker of the House doesn’t make him any less a member of the House of Representatives or Speaker of the House. As we have consistently argued at the level of constitutional and juridical laws and practice, it is for our courts to decide the legality of Tambuwal’s Speakership and membership of the House. Nothing empowers the Police and the Army to act the way they have acted this morning. The invasion of the House of Representatives is needless, unwarranted, reprehensible and repugnant. We condemn it without equivocation.
We are at loss as to what may have informed the action of the Executive arm of Government. Hon Tambuwal symbolizes the Legislature as an important arm of Government. We take a dim view of attempts by the Executive arm to rubbish the integrity of the Legislative arm.
Like politicians of the NPN era, we sense desperation on the part of the ruling party PDP and if the actions of some of its leading members today serve as some ominous signs for what’s to come in 2015, we would only but plead for caution. It was no easy task pushing the military back to the barracks. A stitch in time saves nine.
Abdul Mahmud
President, Public Interest Lawyers League (PILL)
20th November, 2014
