The Supreme Court on Friday disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami SAN, “have no power to request or compel the national assembly to amend any part of the Act of the National Assembly in which they have participated in its making.”
According to the reports, the apex court held in view of FG’s prayers against Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act which bars political appointees from voting or being voted for, which was challenged by the federal government.
It was gathered that the federal government had approached the apex court insisting that the section in question contravenes the voting rights of all Nigerians as enshrined in Sections 137, 147 of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
But NASS, Rivers State and the NBA disagreed and urged the Supreme Court to dismiss FG’s suit for having no right to appear before the court and because the FG must not be allowed to assume jurisdiction in lawmaking which is the exclusive powers of the National Assembly.
A seven-man panel of the court, led by Musa Dattijo-Muhammad, strike out the suit for being an abuse of the court process.
“There is no provision in the constitution that vests the president the power to challenge the constitutionality or desirability of legislation after he has assented or denied his assent. In this case, the president gave his assent.
“This suit cannot be entertained by this court under section 1(1) (a) of the Additional Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court Act,” it said.
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