TheNewsGuru’s, Editor-at-Large, Mr. Godwin Etakibuebu, has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s recently signed Executive Order 6 as a move that lacks constitutionality.
Etakibuebu who made the disclosure while speaking on Lagos Talks FM 91.3FM on Monday opined that the Buhari-led government appears to have usurped the powers of the judiciary in its desperate move to battle corruption.
The talk show, is the much talked about programme birthed from a partnership between TNG and Lagos Talks FM 91.3FM – it runs weekly (Mondays) from 10 am – 11 am.
Making a case for the Buhari-led government, the veteran journalist said, “A man with enormous resources can stall court processes, and it is to battle this that the federal government moved to create the Executive Order 6, I believe it is needed”
In the course of the radio show, Etakibuebu who believed the Buhari’s executive order is needed in the crusade against corruption, however, stressed that the present administration failed to adhere to the principle of constitutionalism.
“Constitutionally there is division of power, the judiciary is there, executive and the legislative arm – it is truly the duty of the executive to carry out the implementation but without judiciary’s backing it means the executive has usurped the functionality of other arms of government.” Says Etakibuebu.
He further punctured the Buhari’s travel ban list, citing the appearance of a dead man, a former Enugu State Chief Judge, Professor Innocent Umezulike, who died on June 6, from travelling out of the country.
His words, “Enugu state Chief Judge passed on some months ago, and was listed in the travel ban list…how do you stop a dead man from travelling?”
To buttress his point on the inaccuracies in the Buhari travel ban list, Etakibuebu also alluded to the Former Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa, whose name also appeared in the list after he had been cleared by the court.
Recall, Bafarawa was in July, 2018, discharged and acquitted of an alleged N13 billion fraud charges by a Sokoto State High Court.
The Guru analyst said the missing gaps in the list has raised lots of questions and spurred some critics to suspect that Buhari might be trying to re-introduce Nigeria to the draconian Decree 2 and 4 promulgated in the 1980s under the military rule.
“There is just no constitutionality in the approach, from my little knowledge of law, I am sure the court will throw this out.” He noted
Asked by the host [Sadiq], if the Buhari-led administration is truly tackling corruption, Etakibuebu answered, “Unfortunately, we haven’t seen the battle of corruption at the appropriate fronts, Sylva was arrested for corruption…he joined APC and his properties were returned to him.”
“Corruption can’t be tackled merely by efforts of an individual, it is only by building the institution to battle it. The EFCC is today only an attacking dog of the government. Until, institution are empowered and given a free hand to operate, battling corruption will the difficult.”
TheNewsGuru is published by Kingdom Media Network Int’l Nigeria Limited. TheNewsGuru, a multi-media company, started as Nigeria’s first comprehensive, real online newspaper, TheNewsGuru.com [read more]
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