A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Jibrin Samuel Okutepa, has criticized President Bola Tinubu’s recent intervention in the political crisis in Rivers State, calling it a “breach” of the constitution.
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In a resolution reached after a meeting brokered by Tinubu, 27 lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) were allowed to return to the Rivers State House of Assembly.
However, Okutepa argued that this resolution was unconstitutional. “I asked if that resolution was constitutional. I do not think so,” he said.
According to the SAN, as President, Tinubu has a duty to defend and protect the constitution, not violate it.
“The defections of these 27 members of Rivers State House of Assembly may have been politically motivated, but it carries with it grave Constitutional implications that can not be politically resolved,” he stated.
Okutepa added that the dispute was already before the courts and the “political class must allow the courts to resolve the dispute.”
He warned that the President’s action in accepting the return of the lawmakers sends “grave and wrong signals” that he can ignore the provisions of the constitution when it suits political exigencies.
“Any political solutions that breach the Nigerian constitution are unconstitutional and null and void and of no effect,” the senior lawyer declared.
He urged Tinubu to be bold enough to enforce the constitution rather than set bad examples of violating it.
Okutepa said the real problem with Nigeria is not lack of laws, but leaders who deliberately breach the law with impunity.
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