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Re - How 25 Senators Can Impeach Saraki By Sunusi Musa - Politics - Nairaland

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Re - How 25 Senators Can Impeach Saraki By Sunusi Musa by Dewze(m): 3:17pm On Aug 16, 2018
The purpose of this thread is to address an article drawn from the dailytrust and posted here by Hungerbad. The article I suppose is a certain Sunusi Musa giving his own interpretation of the Nigerian constitution as it concerns the impeachment requirement of a House of Assembly president. The article from my understanding is implying that subsection 143(2) of the constitution on its own gives power to 1/3 of the members of the National Assembly to carry out impeachment besides the 2/3 that has always been known.
You can check out the article here https://www.nairaland.com/4678799/how-25-senators-impeach-saraki

I'm not a lawyer and I do not claim to have or ever have had anything to do with the legal proffession. I do believe that I do not need to be a lawyer to understand what is written in the constitution, and from my understanding of what is written in those sections of the constitution mentioned in the article, I can boldly say that interpretation was wrong and myopic. I say myopic because the writer failed to consider the implication of section 143 as a whole but rather picked out subsection 143(2) and made his conclusion solely on that.

Before I go into what the constitution really says I will past the sections he addressed for easy follow up:
Section 50(2) (C) states:
The President or Deputy President of the Senate or the Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives shall vacate his office if he is removed from office by a resolution of the Senate or of the House of Representatives, as the case may be, by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of the members of that House.

54. (1) The quorum of the Senate or of the House of Representatives shall be one third of all the members of the Legislative House concerned.


143. (1) The President or Vice-President may be removed from office in accordance with the provisions of this section.
(2) Whenever a notice of any allegation in writing signed by not less than one-third of the members of the National Assembly-
read more here https://nigerian-constitution.com/chapter-6-part-1-section-143-removal-of-president-from-office/
(3) A motion of the National Assembly that the allegation be investigated shall not be declared as having been passed, unless it is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of all the members of each House of the National Assembly.
(4) Where the report of the Panel is that the allegation against the holder of the office has been proved, then within fourteen days of the receipt of the report at the House the National Assembly shall consider the report, and if by a resolution of each House of the National Assembly supported by not less than two-thirds majority of all its members, the report of the Panel is adopted, then the holder of the office shall stand removed from office as from the date of the adoption of the report.


Now let me delve into the true and unbiased interpretations of these sections, especially section 143.
Section 143 simply tells you the procedures that should be taken for an impeachment, This is the main thing the writer failed to understand and 141(1) states it quite clearly.

141(1) states that a sitting office holder can only be impeached based on the "provisions" ( emphasis on plural not singular) of this section. Meaning it would need the combination of all subsections of this section to make an impeachment possible, not just one subsection only.

143(2) says that before an allegation against a sitting office holder is even considered at all for investigation, it should have been presented in writing, signed by not less than 1/3 of the members of the House. Meaning 143(2) does not give power to 1/3 to impeach, it only gives them power to tender an allegation.

143(3) says that after the allegation has been presented in writing and signed by 1/3 of the members of the House, the matter will then be brought to the floor of the House for a motion to be passed that the allegation be investigated. it states clearly hear that the motion to investigate the matter cannot be declared as passed until not less than 2/3 of "all the members" of each House of Assembly agrees to it. In other words, the matter cannot be investigated by the House if up to 2/3 do not agree to do so.

143(4) Note: this subsection only comes into effect after the allegation has been approved for investigation by the provision of 141(4) and the panel set up to investigate the matter has submitted a report of proof against the accused sitting officer.. This subsection says that after all that has been done, within fourteen days of the report being submitted, the National Assembly will consider the report. By a resolution, each House of Assembly, supported by not less than 2/3 of "all of its members", not 2/3 of some of them, will then proceed to impeach the accused holder of office

So, in conclusion, that subsection 143(2) does not stand on its own as the criteria for impeachment, rather it is part of a procedure or series of criteria needed.

Note:
Section 50(2) clearly states that 2/3 of all members(not half, not some and definitely not present or sitting members) of a House are needed to make an impeachment. Also, I do not see any where in the sections mentioned by the writer where power is given to the quorom(as described in section 54) to effect impeachment.

Sign Out

*** I do not intend to imply anything other than the interpretations of the sections and subsections of the constitution mentioned here and as stated in the article posted by Hungerbad ***
Re: Re - How 25 Senators Can Impeach Saraki By Sunusi Musa by Alejoc(m): 3:17pm On Aug 16, 2018
Only in Nigeria!
Re: Re - How 25 Senators Can Impeach Saraki By Sunusi Musa by ManirBK: 3:19pm On Aug 16, 2018
Those pressurizing Saraki to contest are deceiving him.What would you do if after ur wedding day u found out
dat the cameraman didnt take any pictures he was only
flashing lights!!!
Re: Re - How 25 Senators Can Impeach Saraki By Sunusi Musa by dukie25: 3:40pm On Aug 16, 2018
Yeah
They can impeach him in their dream

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