You're a Professor of Law and your perceived knowledge of the Laws of our land and our Law books ought to be deep.
I'm no Lawyer Sir, but I feel it's highly mischievous and
deliberately misleading to cite Constitutional provision of Section 89
to justify your snub of the summon by the Senate.
Sir, it's obviously a while you left Law School and probably a long while you were involved in litigation.
Sir, for sake of education, Section 89 you cited is in Part E of the
1999 Constitution which is titled "Powers and Control over Public Funds"
by the National Assembly.
Sir, section 89 to even the lamest of
all minds knows this section defines the power of the legislature in
furtherance of its powers to conduct investigation primarily in line
with disbursement of public funds.
For avoidance of doubts, I will not only quote section 89, but section 88 as well.
"88. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, each House of
the National Assembly shall have power by resolution published in its
journal or in the Official Gazette of the Government of the Federation
to direct or cause to be directed investigation into -
(a) any matter or thing with respect to which it has power to make laws, and
(b) the conduct of affairs of any person, authority, ministry or
government department charged, or intended to be charged, with the duty
of or responsibility for -
(i) executing or administering laws enacted by National Assembly, and
(ii) disbursing or administering moneys appropriated or to be appropriated by the National Assembly.
(2) The powers conferred on the National Assembly under the provisions
of this section are exercisable only for the purpose of enabling it to -
(a) make laws with respect to any matter within its legislative competence and correct any defects in existing laws; and
(b) expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution or
administration of laws within its legislative competence and in the
disbursement or administration of funds appropriated by it.
89. (1)
For the purposes of any investigation under section 88 of this
Constitutional and subject to the provisions thereof, the Senate or the
House of Representatives or a committee appointed in accordance with
section 62 of this Constitution shall have power to -
(a) procure
all such evidence, written or oral, direct or circumstantial, as it may
think necessary or desirable, and examine all persons as witnesses whose
evidence may be material or relevant to the subject matter;
(b) require such evidence to be given on oath;
(c) summon any person in Nigeria to give evidence at any place or
produce any document or other thing in his possession or under his
control, and examine him as a witness and require him to produce any
document or other thing in his possession or under his control, subject
to all just exceptions; and
(d) issue a warrant to compel the
attendance of any person who, after having been summoned to attend,
fails, refuses or neglects to do so and does not excuse such failure,
refusal or neglect to the satisfaction of the House or the committee in
question, and order him to pay all costs which may have been occasioned
in compelling his attendance or by reason of his failure, refusal or
neglect to obey the summons, and also to impose such fine as may be
prescribed for any such failure, refused or neglect; and any fine so
imposed shall be recoverable in the same manner as a fine imposed by a
court of law.
(2) A summons or warrant issued under this section may
be served or executed by any member of the Nigeria Police Force or by
any person authorised in that behalf by the President of the Senate or
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, as the case may require.
Sir, from what I've brought to fore, I'm of the humble opinion you deliberately misinformed the general public.
Thank God I don't just join the bandwagon...
Good evening Nigeria...
God Bless Nigeria...
From Yemi Saka
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