By Baridoo Bariledum Bright
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A sagacious look at the political rift amongst members of the once big ‘New Rivers Vision’ family in Rivers State appears to be far from over. Recall that two factions of the Rivers State House of Assembly had since emerged as a consequence of the impeachment notice served on Governor Fubara.
The political fighting took a different twist when a Rivers State High Court sitting in Isiokpo gave an order restraining the Ameawhule led faction from interrupting the sittings of the Ehie led faction. In their political scheme, the Ameawhule led group defected to the All Progressive Congress (APC). Subsequently, the Ehie led Assembly declared the seats of the Ameawhule led lawmakers vacant pursuant to Section 109(1)(g) of the Constitution. All these and others not mentioned here birthed more legal battles.
However, what appears to be compliance with the peace accord brokered by President Tinubu, is the withdrawal of the court processes filed by the Ameawhule led faction and the recent resignation of Edison Ehie as the Speaker and Member of the Rivers State House of Assembly representing Ahoada East Constituency II on the 29th day of December 2023.
While the resignation prima facie appears to be implicit admittance of the terms of the peace accord, the irreconcilable legal issues bugging my mind are whether Ehie has validly and legally resigned his membership of the Rivers State House of Assembly and without prejudice to either side of the political divide, whether Ehie has resigned his position as Speaker or is such resignation a political prank?
A Legislative House in Nigeria whether at the federal or state level is the making of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 As Amended. This is cognizable under Section 47 with respect to the federal and Section 90 for the state. More comprehensively, Chapter V is dedicated to the Legislature and Legislative powers are specifically enshrined in Section 4 of the Constitution.
The law governing the resignation of a Speaker and Member of a Legislative House is ingrained in Section 306 subsections 1, 6 and 7 of the same Constitution.
Section 306 subsections 1, 6 and 7 of the Constitution provides thus:-
(1) Save as provided in this section, any person who is appointed, elected or otherwise selected to any office established by this Constitution may resign from that office by writing under his hand addressed to the authority or person by whom he was appointed, elected or selected.
(6) The notice of resignation of the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall in each case be addressed to the Clerk of the National Assembly, and the notice of resignation of the Speaker of a House of Assembly shall be addressed to the Clerk of the House of Assembly of the State.
(7) The notice of resignation of a member of a legislative house shall be addressed to the President of the Senate or as the case may require, to the Speaker of the legislative house in question.
A simple glance at the gamut of the above sections reveals two fundamental limbs or conditions which a resignation letter emanating from any person occupying any office established under the Constitution must satisfy to be valid. The conditions are hereunder as follows:
- The resignation letter must be personally written by a person appointed, elected or selected to any office established by the Constitution.
- The resignation letter must be addressed to the person by whom he was elected or selected. In the case of a Speaker or Senate President to the Clerk of the House concerned and in the case of a member of a legislative house to the Senate President or Speaker as the case may be.
A careful scrutiny of the letter of resignation by Ehie shows his letter of resignation was written by him but addressed to the INEC Chairman, an authority neither mentioned nor recognised to receive a resignation letter either by a legislative member or the Speaker of a legislative house. The question at this juncture is “whether or not the resignation letter is valid in law?”
Going by Section 306 (1) of the Constitution, INEC being an authority through which Members of the Legislature were elected would have been an appropriate authority to receive the resignation letter of a legislator. But, the Constitution has gone a further step by making itself explicit in the interpretation or explanation of what it meant by an authority to whom a resignation letter by a Speaker, Senate President or Member of a legislative house may be addressed in its categorization or specific mention of the Clerk in the case of resignation by a Speaker or Senate President and in the case of resignation by a legislative member to the Speaker or Senate President as the case may be under sub-sections (6) and (7) of Section 306 already reproduced above.
Thus, the purported resignation fails to satisfy the requirements of the law and as such can not in law be viewed as a valid resignation.
The law is settled that in the interpretation of the Constitution or a Statute specific mention of names or items means the exclusion of others not mentioned. This principle is encapsulated in the Latin maxim “generalia specialisus non derogant. Similarly applicable are the Latin maxims of “expressio unius est exclusio alterius”, “inclusio unius est exclusio alterius” and “enumeratio unius est exclusio alterius” meaning the express inclusion of one thing is the exclusion of another or the specification of one thing is the exclusion of the other.
The above was judicially baptized and confirmed in the celebrated case of ORJI & ANOR v. UGOCHUKWU & ORS (2009) LPELR-4798(CA) per SAKA ADEYEMI IBIYEYE, JCA.
A case on all fours with this occurred in Adamawa and was tested in the Federal High Court in the case of Bala Ngilari v. Ahmadu Fintiri (unreported). In that case, the Adamawa State House of Assembly had begun an impeachment process against the then Governor Murtala Nyako and his Deputy Niglari, the plaintiff. To escape impeachment, Ngilari cunningly wrote a resignation letter addressing it to the speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly instead of the Governor as required by the Constitution. After impeaching the Governor the office of the Deputy Governor was declared vacant and the Speaker was sworn in as Acting Governor. In a suit by the plaintiff the Deputy Governor, Justice Ademola held that Ngilari did not resign as provided in Section 306 (1) (2) and (5) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria noting that it was not the duty of the Adamawa State House of Assembly to receive and act on a letter of resignation from the deputy governor. The Court further held that the resignation and swearing in of the Speaker as Acting Governor was null and void and ordered the Deputy Governor Ngilari to be sworn in as Governor.
Equally relevant is the case of ONUKWUBIRI & ANOR v. IBEAKANMA & ORS (2014) LPELR-23804(CA) where IGNATIUS IGWE AGUBE, JCA held inter alia as follows: “by the provision of Section 306(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, which is the grundnorm of this nation…the resignation of any person from any office established by this Constitution shall take effect when the writing signifying the resignation is received by the authority or person to whom it is addressed or by any person authorized by that authority or person to received it.”
Consequently, for a resignation letter by a member of the House Assembly or any legislative house to be valid it must be personally written by such a member and addressed to the Speaker of the House of Assembly, the Senate President or the Speaker of the House of Representatives as the case may be in line with Section 306 (1) and (7).
Furthermore, a resignation by the Speaker of the House of Assembly, the Senate President or the Speaker House of Representatives must be personally written by him and addressed to the clerk of the legislative house concerned as required by Section 306 (1) and (6) of the Constitution to be valid.
Given the above, it is submitted that since the Chairman of INEC was not specifically mentioned or within the contemplation of Section 306 (6) and (7) the resignation letter by Ehie addressed to the Chairman of INEC is of no consequence at all and it is null and void without any effect. The implication at law is that Edison Ehie has not legally resigned his membership and position as speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Written by Baridoo Bariledum Bright, Faculty of Law, University of Port Harcourt.
He can be reached at baridoobb@gmail.com or bbbaridoo@gmail.com. 4th January, 2024.
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