POLITICAL Adviser on National Assembly Matters to ex-President Shehu Shagari, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, has gone to court to challenge the resolution by the National Assembly mandating Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to assume the position of acting president, pending the return of President Umaru Yar’Adua who is receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia.

Yakassai, who also is the  Chairman, Forum for the Defence of Democracy and the Rule of Law, said the resolution was against the 1999  Constitution.

In the  suit   No FHC/ABJ/CS/2010, at the Federal High Court in Abuja,  in which Professor Sayeed Tunde Malik and Sylvanus Ofoke, among others, are also plaintiffs, they are seeking a declaration that the resolution of the Senate and the House of Representatives of February 9, 2010, that the vice-president shall act as president without a written letter from the president, is in violation of Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution.

The plaintiffs asked Justice Adamu Bello of Federal High Court II Abuja, to declare that the interpretation given and adopted by the National Assembly of what amounted to compliance with Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution was a usurpation of the exclusive powers of the judiciary/court and, therefore, contravened Section 6 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.

Equally, the plaintiffs insisted that the interpretation of the word ‘transmit’ given by the Senate and the House of Representatives respectively, was not only contradictory but also amounted to usurpation of the exclusive powers of the Judiciary/Court and therefore, against section 6 of the 1999 constitution.

The plaintiffs argued in the suit that the vice-president acting as president pursuant to the resolutions of the National Assembly could not properly and constitutionally discharge the functions of the office of the president.

Based on this,  the plaintiffs are praying the court to declare that the powers vested in the Executive Council of the Federation by virtue of Section 144 of the 1999 Constitution cannot be enforced by an order of a court.

The suit, filed on behalf of the plaintiffs by Yahaya Mahmood of Arewa Chambers, and Yahaya Mahmood, is urging the Federal High Court to grant an order restraining the vice-president from exercising or further exercising the powers of the president and/or discharging the functions of the office of the president pending the hearing and determination of the suit, on whether the National Assembly’s resolution of February 9, 2010, without a written letter from the president that the vice-president should henceforth discharge the functions of the office of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation is in compliance with section 145 of the constitution of the country.

The plaintiffs are, therefore, seeking an injunction from the court, restraining the vice-president (purportedly acting as acting president) from exercising the powers of the President and/or discharging the functions of the Office of the President, pending the hearing and determination of the suit.

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