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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Court summons AG over 1999 ConstitutionJOSEPH NWANKWO, Abuja AN Abuja Federal High Court has ordered Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Akinolu Olujimi (SAN), to produce in court on June 29 documents on how the General Abdulsalami Abubakar regime made the 1999 Constitution. The AG is expected to come to court with the documents as they relate to the following: · Instrument constituting the Provisional Ruling Council (PRC) under General Abubakar; · The report of the Constitutional Debate Co-ordinating Committee (CDCC) set up in November 1998; · Minutes of the considerations of the PRC on the CDCC report; · And the amendments made on the Constitution by the PRC and the final approval of the council. According to Dr. Tunji Abayomi, counsel to the 10 lawyers challenging the constitutionality of the 1999 Constitution by virtue of the fact that it was signed into law by General Abubakar, the purpose of the subpoena is to shed some light for better understanding of how the military made the Constitution. According to him: �the Nigerian people were never really part of the constitution making process, which was held in large measure of secrecy before the promulgation by decree into law.� �It was the same military government that authored and authorised the constitution that debated it, certified it and enacted it into law as Decree 24 of 1999,� he added. Abayomi noted that the country was going through a lot of political and social crises today because Nigerians never agreed on the type of constitution they wanted. He said: �The 1999 Constitution should be annulled as military governments are illegal. The mere fact that a constitution is decreed into law is an infestation, it makes it unconstitutional, the constitution should never be decreed into law.� �In order to avoid usurpation and coup plotting we have to have a constitution by the people as laws made by the military immunises the military officers. It is a question of the sovereignty of every Nigerian to be governed by a constitution he had participated in its drafting,� he added. Ten lawyers had dragged the AG, Clerk of the National Assembly and Attorneys-General of the 36 states to court praying for the determination of the questions: Whether Decree 24 of 1999 otherwise called the �Constitution of the Federation 1999� can be deemed to be a constitution of the people of Nigeria until it is freely initiated, formed, written, published or enacted by the people in its original character without the tampering or effecting by a military dictatorship.
Wednesday, June 23, 2004 |
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