Court refuses to stop Reps from impeaching Jonathan

An Abuja Federal High Court on Friday refused to order the House of Representatives to refrain from its threat to commence impeachment proceedings against President Goodluck Jonathan over the implementation of the 2012 budget.

The National Chairman of the African Liberation Party, Dr. Emmanuel Okereke, had in an ex-parte application, asked the court to restrain the lawmakers from going ahead with their threat to impeach the President over what they described as poor implementation of the budget.

The plaintiffs listed the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal; the House of Representatives; the National Assembly; the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke; and President Goodluck Jonathan as the defendants in the suit.

However, the court, presided over by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, refused to grant the application for two reasons: the non-inclusion of the Senate as a party, and lack of clear evidence that the Reps had already commenced an impeachment process against Jonathan.

Kolawole said, “The power to remove or impeach the 5th defendant (President) lay with the 3rd defendant (National Assembly) but no unilateral power to remove the 5th defendant lies solely with the 2nd defendant (House of Representatives).

“The Senate was not made a party in the suit and the mere listing of the 3rd defendant (National Assembly) is not enough to join the Senate in the suit.”

He held that the provisions of section 143 of the constitution, which spelt out the guidelines for the impeachment of the President and vice -president, stipulated that the two chambers of the National Assembly – Senate and House of Representatives – must be involved.

Punch