Impeachment Process: A Federal High Court, sitting in Osogbo, the Osun state capital, has given National Assembly a nod to begin the impeachment process against President Muhammadu Buhari.
Justice Maurine Adaobi Onyetenu on Wednesday, July 4, 2018, gave the order based on the suit filed by two Nigerians, Kanmi Ajibola, a lawyer and Sulaiman Adeniyi, a human rights activist.
Recall that Ajibola and Adeniyi had approached the court to enforce the National Assembly to impeach President Buhari, three months ago, after writing to both chambers of the National Assembly on the need to impeach the president.
They alleged constitutional breaches by the president and threatened to approach the court if the federal legislators failed to act accordingly.
The duo was neglected by the lawmakers, which made them file a suit on June 19, 2018, at the Federal High Court, Osogbo praying for an order of mandamus to compel both the Senate and the House of Representatives to start the impeachment process against President Buhari.
In the motion ex-parte, they claimed that President Buhari’s election into power was illegal stressing that he contested, won and was sworn in as the president without possessing the basic constitutional requirements.
Arguing that President Buhari in flagrant violation of section 137 (1) (j) of the 1999 constitution, presented a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for the purpose of the 2015 presidential election that brought him to the office of the president.
Adding: “Can the conduct of the 4th Respondent, particularly on the presentation of a forged certificate, condone in America or great Britain unchecked? Can the 4th Respondent continue to benefit from his act of forgery and infraction of the constitution? “Definitely, an American president cannot be genuinely accused of presentation of a forged certificate and still be allowed to continue as the president, likewise the prime minister of Great Britain.”
Following there claims, Ajibola urged the court to give the National Assembly the power to commence the Impeachment process of President Buhari for breach of the Nigerian constitution.
In her response, Justice Onyetenu ordered,“that the National Assembly being the 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents commence the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari.”
Meanwhile, October 30 has been fixed for the further hearing of the matter has been fixed to Tuesday, October 30.