The Ekiti State House of Assembly has warned President Muhammadu Buhari from trying to exercise powers that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has not bestowed on him by reason of his purported plan to place a ban of movement on two governors from
the Southern part of the country.
The Ekiti legislature, in a statement issued by the Chairman of its Committee on Information, Youth and Sports Development, Chief Olugboyega Aribisogan, on Wednesday, in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, noted that any attempt to assume a power not bequeathed by the
constitution in a democracy was tantamount to invitation to anarchy.
“The same section 308 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria that President Muhammadu Buhari swore to uphold gave the right of immunity to him, Dr Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and Nyesom
Wike of Rivers State.
“Nobody, no matter how highly placed, can mess up with our governor, as long as we operate within the ambit of the laws of the land. It is an aberration for any mortal to so decree that a freeborn like him cannot move freely, having not been alleged of any wrongdoing.
“We, as a House of Assembly and lawmakers, will not stand with arms akimbo watching the laws made for the good governance of our people being broken with disdain and reckless abandon. We stand with Ayo Fayose in everything he does. He has not committed any offence by
being the leader of the opposition voice in the country.
“That is why we have taken our case to the international community. We want President Buhari to wake up to the reality that he is president of a democratic Nigeria in the 21st century, and not a head of a military junta of the late 20th century Nigeria.
“The world has taken note of the deliberate or circumstantial similarities of his current regime with the former. In today’s Nigeria, no ordinary citizen would need to report to a Buhari-appointed Director of State Security (DSS) before traveling to anywhere in the world. Thus, it is an insult; a rape on democracy, the rule of law and the constitution of the nation to wish that an elected
governor bow before a political appointee before exercising his right to free movement.
“The Ekiti State House of Assembly wishes, therefore, to advise President Buhari to face the nagging economic problems of the nation, think out of the box and solve them, instead of creating more problems for the nation by assuming powers that he lack under the constitution,
simply for the purpose of political witch-hunting,” the statement read.
Chief Aribisogan noted that much as the Ekiti State government was working round the clock to get out of the problems created by the immediate-past All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government in the state and the Federal Government’s cluelessness over the nation’s
economy, it would not shirk the responsibility of attacking evil politicking of “those in government, but behaving as if in opposition for lack of anything good to offer Nigerians.”
