Addressing an executive communication at Thursday’s plenary session of the Nigerian Senate, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Matthew Urhoghide moved for immediate impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari for voiding constitutional provisions.
The Buhari’s impeachment motion by Urhoghide which was seconded by the Senator representing Enugu North constituency, Chukwuka Utazi, has it that the President abused executive powers, thereby flouting provisions of the 1999 Constitution by approving the sum of $496 million for the purchase of super Tucano fighter jets without consent of the National Assembly.
In a letter defending his approval of the money withdrawn from the excess crude account (ECA), Buhari said he had anticipated the lawmakers would approve the withdrawal.
“There is nowhere in our law that talked about anticipatory approval. We cannot sit down and allow this to take place. It is an impeachable offence.
“There is no infraction that is worse than this. Let us not continue to sleep. I propose that we commence the impeachment of Mr President,” House of Representative member, Kingsley Chinda said citing sections 80 and 81 of the 1999 constitution.
Senator Urhoghide, who moved for the impeachment in the Senate, moved the motion for the invocation of Section 143 of the 1999 Constitution, which deals with impeachment of the President for voiding due process.
Section 143 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) deals with the removal of the president and vice-president from office.
143. (1) The President or Vice-President may be removed from office in accordance with the provisions of this section.
(2) Whenever a notice of any allegation in writing signed by not less than one-third of the members of the National Assembly:-
(a) is presented to the President of the Senate;
(b) stating that the holder of the office of President or Vice-President is guilty of gross misconduct in the performance of the functions of his office, detailed particulars of which shall be specified, the President of the Senate shall within seven days of the receipt of the notice cause a copy thereof to be served on the holder of the office and on each member of the National Assembly, and shall also cause any statement made in reply to the allegation by the holder of the office to be served on each member of the National Assembly.
(3) Within fourteen days of the presentation of the notice to the President of the Senate (whether or not any statement was made by the holder of the office in reply to the allegation contained in the notice) each House of the National Assembly shall resolve by motion without any debate whether or not the allegation shall be investigated.
(4) A motion of the National Assembly that the allegation be investigated shall not be declared as having been passed, unless it is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of all the members of each House of the National Assembly.
(5) Within seven days of the passing of a motion under the foregoing provisions, the Chief Justice of Nigeria shall at the request of the President of the Senate appoint a Panel of seven persons who in his opinion are of unquestionable integrity, not being members of any public service, legislative house or political party, to investigate the allegation as provide in this section.
(6) The holder of an office whose conduct is being investigated under this section shall have the right to defend himself in person and be represented before the Panel by legal practitioners of his own choice.
(7) A Panel appointed under this section shall –
(a) have such powers and exercise its functions in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed by the National Assembly; and
(b) within three months of its appointment report its findings to each House of the National Assembly.
(8) Where the Panel reports to each House of the National Assembly that the allegation has not been proved, no further proceedings shall be taken in respect of the matter.
(9) Where the report of the Panel is that the allegation against the holder of the office has been proved, then within fourteen days of the receipt of the report at the House the National Assembly shall consider the report, and if by a resolution of each House of the National Assembly supported by not less than two-thirds majority of all its members, the report of the Panel is adopted, then the holder of the office shall stand removed from office as from the date of the adoption of the report.
(10) No proceedings or determination of the Panel or of the National Assembly or any matter relating thereto shall be entertained or questioned in any court.
(11) In this section – “gross misconduct” means a grave violation or breach of the provisions of this Constitution or a misconduct of such nature as amounts in the opinion of the National Assembly to gross misconduct.”
Meanwhile, after hearing contributions from his colleagues at Thursday’s plenary, Senate President Bukola Saraki submitted the matter be referred to the Senate’s judiciary committee to make clear the terms for the impeachment of the President.
“Distinguished Colleagues, I think we have taken contributions from everyone. I also think that the contribution of the Leader addresses two issues and we must take note of them:
“One, the concerns we have, as Senator Shehu Sani said, all of us agree that there is definitely security concerns in our country.
“At the same time, we all agree that from what has been presented to us definitely there is a breach of Constitution.
“The question is what are the circumstances surrounding the breach of Constitution and whether those circumstances justify the breach of Constitution.
“I am sure you will all remember that in August 2017, when I got the message from the U.S. Ambassador, that the Senate Committee at the Congress of the United States wanted to visit us because they had received a request from President Trump to approve for payment of the Tucano but they needed Congress approval. Congress wanted to come to Nigeria to speak with their counterparts.
“I led the team with members of the House of Representatives and members here in the Senate and we met with the members of Congress on this issue. We were aware at that time of the issues.
“Between September and February with all due respect, there was ample time for the Executive to have carried us along on this issue. There are arguments for and against and those arguments are valid.
“The suggestion of the Leader, that we should send it to the Judiciary Committee to: 1. Advise whether truly the constitution has been breached; 2. Whether the circumstances justify the breach in any way.
“What do we do going forward in trying to appropriate because the funds have already been spent. Do we go under what the Leader has come under or we start the whole process of appropriating.
“It was after we agreed in September that the US Congress went back to give approval to the Executive to go ahead to sell the Tucano to Nigeria.
“If you will all agree, we should refer the matter to the Judiciary Committee and give them a short period of time.
“By Wednesday next week they should present their report to us,” Saraki surmised.