Leadership (Abuja)
From Achor Abimaje
9 January 2009
Jos — House of Representatives eight- man ad-hoc Committee on Jos Crisis has rejected the position of the Government of Plateau State that it's an illegal body.
Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Isa Idris Umar, said in a reply to a letter by the Attorney General of Plateau State and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Edward Pwajok, that the committee was constitutionally constituted by a resolution of the House and so could not be labelled as an illegal body.
The Attorney General, had in a letter dated January 6, told the committee that it has no constitutional powers of investigation as envisaged to be carried out by it.
According to him, the subject matter was not within the committee's legislative competence as its oversight functions did not extend to the federating unit of the federation.
He then advised the committee to halt its investigation in view of the fact that the state government had already constituted a judicial commission of inquiry into the ugly incident.
However, Idris in his reply told Pwajok that since it was set up by the House in pursuant of its constitutional mandate, he could direct the letter to the Speaker, Mr. Oladimeji Bankole.
Besides,the chairman of the committee said that the National Assembly in constituting the committee drew its powers from Section 4, 88, 89 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and the substance of the Exclusive and Concurrent lists thereof.
He said that the committee could not yield to the demands of the Plateau state government because there was no judicial pronouncement on the matter.
In another development, Plateau State Government has called for the prosecution of the Chairman of Okene Local Government Area, Alhaji Yahaya Karaku, over the 26 mercenaries arrested in Jos inside an Okene legislative bus at UTC junction in the state capital recently.
In a statement by the Special Adviser, Media, Mr. Dan Manjang, the state government said that by his utterances, Karaku might be in a position to explain much better his role in the crisis of Noverber 28, 2008.
The statement further said Kogi State Government should go beyond querying Karaku the chairman of Okene LGC by arraigning him in court as his utterances were an indictment on him as a public officer and the state in general. (NAN)
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The 1999 Nigerian constitution and all wise Men and Women of Nigeria said:-Jos — House of Representatives eight- man ad-hoc Committee on Jos Crisis it's an illegal body.They better pack there ass and scram out of Plateu and wait for Jang report as more hiding agenda are being expose and acts commited by other Governors are being kept under-carpets.