Nigeria Content Online

The National
Assembly, yesterday appealed a Lagos high court ruling that the
constitution recently amended by the lawmakers is incomplete without
the assent of the president.

A Federal High
Court sitting in Lagos, presided over by Okechukwu Okeke, ruled on
Monday that the purported amendment to the Constitution remains illegal
until it is presented to the president for his assent and approval. The
court also declared the 2010 Constitution Amendment Act as null and
void, saying it would remain void until it is sent to the president.

However, counsel to
the National Assembly, Yusuf Ustaz Usman, in response to a suit filed
by Bamidale Aturu at a federal high court in Abuja, urged the court to
nullify the ruling delivered by Mr Okeke, saying the judge ruled in
error.

Mr Aturu however
told the court, presided over by Ibrahim Auta, that since a similar
matter has just being decided upon by a Federal High Court in Lagos, he
should invoke sections 295 (2) and refer the matter to the Court of
Appeal for interpretation, because of its urgent nature and to avoid
conflicting decisions on the same matter.

Mr Usman said he has no objection in sending the case to the court of Appeal for interpretation.

Justice Auta in his
ruling said, “I invoke section 295 of the constitution and refer the
matter to the Court of Appeal for interpretation” and subsequently
transferred the matter to Court of Appeal.

In a four page Notice of Appeal Suit No: FHC/L/941/10, Mr Usman urged the Appeal court to nullify the Lagos ruling.

“The honourable
learned judge erred in law in holding that the plaintiff has the locus
standi to institute the action,” Mr Usman argued.

He added that the
trial judge also “erred in law in holding that the Presidential Assent
is necessary in order to amend the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria when Section 9 of the said Constitution is a special
provision which stipulates the conditions and procedures for the
amendment of the Constitution.” He urged the Appeal court to nullify
the ruling on the ground that the “trial judge violated the Appellant’s
natural and Constitutional rights of fair hearing when he failed to
consider the additional authorities submitted by the Appellant’s
Counsel which authorities were also served on the Respondent’s Counsel
far before the ruling/judgement was delivered.”

Work in progress

The lawmakers also
went ahead with the second amendment to the 1999 constitution with the
handing over of the clean copy of the document to the speakers of the
state Houses of Assemblies in the National Assembly.

Ayogu Eze, the
Senate spokesman argued that the Lagos High Court ruling has nothing to
do with the second alteration of the constitution.

“They (the courts) cannot arrest the process, they can only arrest the product,” he said.

Mr. Eze, who dispelled fears of the process heating up the polity,
noted that the process is “good for this test to go on because after we
have tested it and come to a crystallized decision; nobody is going to
revisit it in the future. We are setting line marks and these landmarks
are things that will benchmark our democracy and make our democracy
what it should be. It is a healthy development so far.”