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Bulkachuwa fights back: You can’t touch me, I spoke under legislative immunity
Adamu Bulkachuwa, Senator formerly representing Bauchi Central, is invoking legislative privileges to ward off the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), over his recent comment in which he revealed how his wife, Zainab Bulkachuwa, former President of the Court of Appeal, used her position to skew judgements for politicians.
His objection is contained in a suit he filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, to prevent the agency from investigating him, after he said at the Senate valedictory session, of the last National Assembly that he “encroached on” his wife’s space while she was in office and that the said wife, who presided over the 2007 Sokoto state governorship election petition tribunal and the suit in which Timipre Sylva, former governor of Bayelsa, challenged the nomination of Seriake Dickson, an ex-governor of the state, as the flag-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), obliged him.
Though former Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who presided over the session, prevented him from concluding his revelation, outraged Nigerians, who felt the damage had already been done, called for his head, while demanding that the National Judicial Commission (NJC), should investigate the tenure of the former appellate court’s boss as well as review all the cases she presided over.
Bulkachuwa was scheduled to appear at the ICPC office on July 6 but he filed a suit to stop the invitation before the date.
Marked FHC/ABJ/CS/895/2023, Bulkachuwa, who argued that he was protected by constitutional impunity as a senator when he made the comment, which he said, was misinterpreted, in a supporting affidavit, explained that as a serving Senator, he was, by law, immune to arrest or detention over any conduct, action or speech he made on its floor.
Stressing that he was neither questioned nor disciplined by the Senate for any wrongdoing, he argued that by law, it was only the senate in session or any of its sub-committees that had the disciplinary power to invite him to answer any question or questions relating to his conduct or utterances on the floor of the upper chamber.
“The national assembly is an independent arm of government with its own regulatory power and every senator, including the plaintiff, has the parliamentary immunity to boldly express themselves on the floor of the senate without any fear of sanctions from the executive arm of government, for and on behalf of their constituents. Hence, the immunity conferred on members to allow or grant lawmakers the freedom of speech they required and confidence why on the floor of the senate.”
Bulkachuwa, while alleging that the defendants, particularly the ICPC, had joined his political opponents “to adopt and propagate the unintended inference from the said inchoate valedictory speech made on the floor of the senate.”
He added: “The defendants, particularly the ICPC or any other law enforcement agency of the federal republic of Nigeria do not have the powers to invite/discipline me (as serving member of the senate at the time of my utterance in reference) questioning/interview on any matter that occurred on the floor of the house of senate without the prior approval of the senate committee saddled with the investigating the actions of a member.
“No civil or criminal proceedings can lie against a serving member of the senate on account of the speech/utterances made on the floor of the senate unless and until the senate exhausts its disciplinary powers over such a member.”
At the court hearing on Thursday, Donald Ayibiowu, counsel to Bulkachuwa prayed the court to grant all the reliefs sought in the suit, while Oyin Koleoso, lawyer to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), faulted his argument, contending that he no longer had any immunity from arrest and prosecution because he was no longer a Senator, urging the court to dismiss the suit, while I.A. Aderounmu, who appeared for the Department of State Services (DSS) and U. M. Narimir, ICPC lawyer, also prayed the court to dismiss the case, while Inyang Ekwo, presiding judge adjourned the matter to October 25 for judgment.
Chidi Odinkalu, Nigeria’s fiery lawyer, law teacher and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), is emphatic that President Bola Tinubu is pushing to perpetuate himself in office, beginning with gaming the electoral process in 2027.
Odinkalu, Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at the Fletcher School, told his host Naija Unfiltered, a popular Nigerian podcast programme, that he was as sure as death that the President would not exit office in 2031, if he succeeded with his current gambit to remain in power beyond next year.
Hear him: “Yes. But as I said, let me repeat myself. There’ll be a third term. President Tinubu has not done all of this just for another four years. There will be a third term. And anybody who is doing, ‘it is not our portion,’ is not reading the evidence.”
To achieve this aim, the activist, who was also emphatic that the National Assembly, would play a role, added: “The current National Assembly is anything but national or an assembly. And if it’s an assembly, it’s not a parliamentary one. Many people have called it a rubber stamp, but I think that is actually abusive of rubber stamps. I think this National Assembly is a disgrace.
Citing how bizarre and completely compliant the national legislature had become to Tinubu, the ex-NHRC’s boss, stated: “If you can change your national anthem in less than 24 hours with no public hearing, no public consultation, no public involvement, it tells you you don’t have a country because a national anthem is fundamental to the construction of a national identity.”
Also referring to the current move by the President to introduce state police, Odinkalu, wondered how the Nigerian Senate would introduce the bill to that effect and proceed towards the first and second readings, as well as committee stage and passage in less than two hours, questioning how that was possible in normal clime.
Hear him: “Once we finish our elections, we’re going to amend our Constitution, introduce a single six-year presidential term. The current incumbent will be elected until 2031. In 2031, what will happen? The question will be, will he be entitled to run on the six-year term or will he not?
“You will then get the best Senior Advocates in Nigeria telling you the law is not retrospective. That is why the administration is supporting the litigation over President Jonathan’s tenure—not because the Constitution is not clear, but because they will say there is precedent. There will be a third term, and I’m prepared to bet on it.”
“If we continue to pay ransom, we are encouraging these criminals to kidnap more people. The cycle will only continue unless we stop rewarding criminality,” were the words of Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, with which he blamed those in the habit of paying ransoms as the major factor fuelling the current wave of kidnapping incidents across the country.
Lawal, on Thursday at the ARISE News/THISDAY Town Hall Conference on State Police and National Security in Abuja, told his audience how he flatly refused to pay a ₦300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019.
Reiterating his opposition to negotiating with bandits and renewed his support for the establishment of state police, Lawal, while recounting the incident, said: “My own brothers were kidnapped in 2019, and the kidnappers demanded about ₦300 million. I told them I was not going to pay a dime. If they wanted to kill them, they could go ahead.”
Stating that his brothers were eventually released without any ransom being paid, he argued that paying ransom usually emboldened criminal groups by providing financial incentives for further kidnappings.
He added: “My position on ransom payments remains unchanged. I will not negotiate, and I will not pay ransom to any criminal, no matter what happens.”
Endorsing the move for the establishment of state police, to enable governors have greater operational authority over security within their states, he regretted that the current constitutional arrangement left governors with responsibility for security without corresponding powers to direct security agencies.
His words: “In as much as I am called the chief security officer of the state, I do not have the command-and-control authority to direct the operations of the security agencies. I’m prepared to support the funding of state police if the proposed policing structure is established. I’m confident that decentralised policing will improve intelligence gathering, response time and the overall fight against insecurity.”
Exactly seven years, two months and four days after he forced Walter Onnoghen, the 16th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) out of office, Danladi Umar, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Thursday, found himself in Kuje prison.
Justice Peter Kekemeke, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, handed the ex-CCT boss the unwelcome package on Thursday, following his arraignment by the Federal Government on a four-count corruption charge.
Umar’s ordeal began after an investigations revealed that he abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while serving as head of the tribunal, having in 2021, reportedly using his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.
He was also accuse of using the same account to collect another N6million on January 25, 2024, from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records and yet another N2.43 million a contractor paid as tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.
After pleading not guilty to offences, said to be punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, Christopher Mshelia, lawyer to the FG, prosecuting the matter, applied for his remand in a correctional facility, while urging the court to set a date for the commencement of trial.
His pleas to be freed on bail pending the determination of the case, was opposed by the prosecution, which drew the court’s attention to the fact that it had just been served with the bail application, saying it needed time to respond to it, forcing Kekemeke to adjourn the case till July 15 for hearing while the former CCT boss remained behind bars.
Umar, had as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.
Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.
He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).
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