The House of Representatives said it has not received official communication from the presidency on whether President Muhamadu Buhari would address the parliament over the state of security in the country or not.
The House had invited Buhari to brief it on the security situation in the country when it adopted a motion on: “Urgent Need to condemn and investigate the insane killing of unarmed Farmers in Jere Local Government of Borno State, sponsored by members of the House from the State.
The President after a meeting with the House leadership last week agreed to honour the invitation and he was been expected this Thursday.
However, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami in a statement on Wednesday maintained that the House resolution inviting President Buhari to interface with it on the rising insecurity in the country was “outside constitutional bounds”.
Addressing journalists on Thursday, the House Spokesperson, Benjamin Kalu said up to the moment, the legislature has not received a formal communication from the office of the President stating that the appointment has been cancelled or shifted.
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Kalu argued that the position of Malami on the visit was not the position of the court as he is not a Judge or Spokesperson of APC, insisting that House’s channel of communication is not with the Attorney General who is not part of the Presidency.
The lawmaker said: “His position cannot be seen as the position of the APC. I insist that no official communication from the Presidency to counter the initial position. Until we receive a contrary position in a formal form where reasons, why they will not be coming, will be explained it will be difficult for me to jump the gun at this point.
“Wait until you receive a formal communication from the Presidency, if he’s not coming to the reasons will be highlighted and we will communicate that to you”.
On whether the President acted on the reported advice of APC Governors not to address the parliament, Kalu said: “As you know what we operate is a democracy that hinges on party supremacy. Beyond the President lies the supremacy of the party, the President answers to the party. He’s there as President on the platform of the APC, given to him by the party so if he took a position as the President and his political party asks him to alter his position if he’s truly a party man he must oblige his party why the discussion goes on.
“All you’ve read about has been from unofficial sources. the question then becomes what’s the relevance of this visit. Many have been asking, is it morally or legally right to have this engagement.
“Regarding whether it is constitutional to invite the President, somehow I would have said let’s leave the judicial interpretation of the provisions of the constitution to be in the hands of the judiciary, but as a lawyer, I can assure you the parliament did not act in error and this I say based on the constitution.
“There’s a mandate and that mandate is well expressed in section 88, 89. The position of the law says that granted by section 4 of the armed forces act, the President is the chairman of the security council. The armed forces act is a piece of legislation made by the parliament. And it is the provision of 89 that we have the right to investigate issues bordering on anything we have the capacity to legislate on.
“We have legislative competence to legislate on all this and therefore if there are things we need to find out in such areas, the law in 89 empowers us to invite anybody for the purposes of obtaining pieces of evidence, either in oral or documentary form and that includes everybody.
“There’s also a part of the law which is the power to arrest and command President, that particular one because of section 308 of the constitution that gives immunity to the President you cannot exercise that.
“The power of discretion or over the operational activities of the armed forces I think he was referring to, section 218, of the constitution. It’s not in doubt, it’s the truth. The power of discretion that’s found in section 67 (1) where it is said that the President has the right, may visit the National Assembly to address National issues that are discretionary.
“But if the House is investigating an issue that borders on all we make laws for, the position of 88,89 is that we can invite people to give us the evidence. Is the President under investigation? The answer is no, we invited him to have an engagement that will help us review a few things, know whether the strategy we have now is in order, to have a feedback mechanism. We can’t command him, but the law says we can invite him”.
