Seriki Adinoyi With Agency Report
9 January 2009
Jos — The controversy over who has the constitutional power to institute a probe panel into the November 28, 2008 sectarian riots in Jos, Plateau State has taken another turn.
THISDAY learnt that the Plateau State Government has written to challenge the legality of the House of Representatives eight-man ad-hoc committee probing the crisis.
The state government said the committee did not have such constitutional power to do so.
Plateau State Government had earlier dragged President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to the Supreme Court for setting up a panel to probe the riots ignited by the Local Government election in Jos North. The panel is headed by Major-General Emmanuel Abisoye (rtd).
Defying the Federal Government, the state had set up its own probe panel.
In its four-paragraph letter entitled, "The Proposed Illegal Probe into the Recent Jos Crisis" addressed to the Chairman of the House ad-hoc committee on the crisis, Hon. Isah Idris Umaru, the state government advised the panel to halt its investigation.
The letter was signed by the state's Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Edward G Pwajok.
But in a swift response, the committee stuck to its guns and even continued its sitting yesterday where the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state traded blames over the crisis.
The state's letter to the committee read: "During your recent courtesy call on the Governor of Plateau State, you did indicate that the committee was on a mission to view the sites of the crisis that took place recently and report back to the House of Representatives. Subsequent media reports have shown that you are embarking on a full scale investigation of the crisis.
"I therefore find it necessary to intimate you that your committee has no such constitutional powers of investigation as envisaged to be carried out by it. You will note that this subject matter is not within your legislative competence and that your oversight functions do not extend to the federating unit of the federation.
"You will therefore be well advised to halt the proposed investigation in view of the fact that the State Government has constituted a Judicial Commission of Inquiring to unearth the immediate and remote causes of the crisis.
"Kindly accept the assurance of my highest esteem."
In its response signed by the chairman, the committee referred to the various sections of the constitution which gives it the right to set up the panel and debunked the claim that the state government was not informed.
The committee said in the letter: "Your letter No MOJ/PS/LEG1/S.6 dated 6th January, 2009 on the above subject matter refers
"The ad-hoc committee observed that the content of your letter does not represent the correct state of affairs since there is a written communication to the Executive Governor of Plateau State in which the mandate of the committee was clearly expressed. This was prior to the courtesy call referred to in your letter.
"This ad-hoc committee was set up by the resolution of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria pursuant to its constitutional mandate.
"We advise that you direct your communication to the Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives. We trust that as a legal practitioner and Chief Law Officer of Plateau State, you know the process of channeling or the constitutional interpretation of your request.
"Please accept the assurance of my highest consideration."
In another hand-written letter, the committee cited Sections 4, 88, 89 of the 1999 Constitution to back up its position.
Section 4 (1) states that, "The legislative powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be vested in a National Assembly for the Federation which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives" while Sections 88 and 89 dwell on the power of the National Assembly to conduct investigations and emphasize the assembly's powers to procure evidence for its investigations.
The committee said the National Assembly draws its power from those sections of the constitution and the substance of the Exclusive and Concurrent Legislative Lists thereof. "We recognise that where there are disputes over the proper interpretation of the constitution, the right avenue for adjudication is the court of law. In the absence of any judicial injunction, this committee is competent to continue its work and shall accordingly proceed," the panel said.
Meanwhile, the ANPP and PDP in the state engaged each other in a verbal war yesterday while appearing before the House committee in Jos.
Trouble started when the Plateau ANPP Secretary, Mr. Mohammed Nazif, alleged that PDP and the state government connived with the Plateau Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) to manipulate the Jos North Local Government election in favour of PDP.
Nazif also alleged that "PDP was not comfortable with the ANPP candidate in Jos North -- who was leading in the election -- and they tried to foist their own candidate on the people of the area."
"The crisis had more of political coloration than ethno-religious," he added.
At this point, the state PDP Chairman, Prof. Dakun Shown, became angry and tried to shout down the ANPP secretary, saying, "You cannot link the cause of the Jos crisis to the PDP Government and PLA-SIEC."
Shown said he would not watch the ANPP scribe cast aspersion on PDP, which, according to him, acted independently of PLASIEC.
He said he was satisfied with the conduct of the election as everyone regarded it as free and fair.
"The crisis in Jos North was pre-determined by some people who just wanted to cause trouble," he said.
A correspondent of The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the verbal exchange prompted a member of the committee, Hon. Chille Igbawua, to call for calm as it was almost degenerating into fisticuffs.
"We are not conducting a trial but only investigation and we advise that nobody should interfere with anyone who is making his own submission," Igbawua said.
Meanwhile, the state chapter of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has alleged that shoddy preparation by PLASIEC was partly responsible for the Jos crisis.
The chairman of the conference, Mohammed Kanam, said: "We made a lot of observations, namely- non-adherence to Electoral Act and non-display of names of Electoral Ad-hoc staff'.'
According to Kanam, if PLASIEC had discharged its duties effectively, the problem would not have come up.
The sitting continues today.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
