VP, Osinbajo Has Full Capacity To Act Acting President, Falana SAN Affirms, As J.S. Okutepa SAN Describes Siege On NASS As Constitutional Sacrilege

There is currently an on going debate amongst legal practitioners on the exact extent to which a vice president could perform his duties as an acting president. This dwells on the proprietary or otherwise of the sack of the DSS boss, Mr. Lawal Daura. In a chat with one of the prominent lawyers and Huma. Rights Activists, Femi Falana, SAN, he said that an Acting President has all the powers of the president. He affirmed that the sack by Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, who himself is a distinguished scholar and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria is right in law by all ramification. Another learned silk, J.S. Okutepa SAN, whilst speaking on the invasion on the Nigerian House, described it as an act of constitutional sacrilege. ”The invasion of the premises of the NASS by armed personnel of the Nigerian security operatives, today no matter the reason, was an act of constitutional sacrilege and aberration. Two wrongs don’t make right. It is an act of self-help which must not be encouraged in our democratic setting. ”There are better ways to deal with those who engaged in constitutional breaches, than using army of invasion to settle political disputes.The reason why people take to these acts of self- help which itself is an aberration may be because we have rendered our judicial process impotent to give immediate justice to our people. Be that as it may, the rule of law and constitutionalism must be preferred to rule of force. ”The political class and security operatives must learn to respect constitutional principles.The government must show willingness to follow and abide by the rule of law. The concomitant effect of acting outside the rule of law is entrownment of rule of force where the mighty becomes right. Let government follow rule of law and show abiding examples for citizens to follow and emulate,” he said. Recall that the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, on Tuesday, the 7th day of August, 2018 terminated the appointment of the Director-General of the Department of State Service, Lawal Daura after the siege on the National Assembly by operatives of the DSS.]]>