Appointment Of FCC Chair, Scribe: Lawyer Sues Buhari
- For gross constitutional breaches
BY EDMOND ODOK – For his alleged gross violation of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution on a continuous basis, President Muhammad Buhari has been dragged before a Federal High Court in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The plaintiff is an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Festus Oluwasanmi Onifade, who maintains that the President’s political appointments smack of deliberate constitutional breaches, especially section 4 of the Federal Character Commission Act.
In the suit now before Justice Inyang Eden Ekwo, Onifade is calling out President Buhari, alongside the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Mueeba Farida Dankaka and Mohammed Bello Tukur as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th respondents respectively.
Onifade’s contention is that the President, by his actions and inactions, has not stop violating some provisions of the 1999 Constitution in the manner of appointing people to political offices in the country.
Instituted on the plaintiff’s behalf by Moses Owuru, his counsel, the suit marked FHC/ABJ/709/2021 contains accusations that President Buhari violated sections 7 and 8 of the Constitution in appointing Mueeba Farida Dankaka and Mohammed Bello Tukur as Executive Chairman and Secretary of the FCC respectively.
Onifade, claiming to be an indigene of Osun State in the South Western geo-political zone of the country, further alleged that the two appointments clearly violate section 4 of the existing FCC Act having been made from the same part of the country, the north.
He, therefore, prayed the court to issue an order compelling President Buhari to immediately dissolve the FCC’s Board and reconstitute a new one to reflect the principle and letters of the FCC enshrined in the 1999 constitution as amended.
Claiming that he is aggrieved by the appointments, Plaintiff also sought another order compelling Mueeba Farida Dankaka and Mohammed Bello Tukur to vacate their offices without any delay.
In a 21-paragraph affidavit supporting the suit, Onifade said the President on March 18, 2020, appointed Mueeba Farida Dankaka and on June 2, 2020, was confirmed by the Senate as FCC’s Executive Chairman.
Also, he claimed that Buhari on April 6, 2017, appointed Mohammed Bello Tukur as Executive Secretary of the FCC but despite the expiration of his tenure on April 7, 2021, Tukur has continued to function in office.
According to Onifade, with the two appointees coming from the North, President Buhari has breached sections 7 and 8 of Nigeria’s Constitution and therefore, urged the court to declare the appointments unlawful, unconstitutional, illegal, null, and void.
Plaintiff also wants the court to declare that Buhari and other defendants in the suit are bound to abide by the provisions of the constitution as they relate to the principle of proportional sharing of all political offices.
The presiding judge, Justice Inyang Eden Ekwo has therefore fixed November 11, 2021, to hear the case.
