RE: Clarification on section 134 of the 1999 constitution
Dear Barrister Agbakoba SAN,
Long time, Senior Comrade!
Your poser to INEC refers.
I hope this my letter meets you well sir.
After reading your letter to the INEC Chairman, my conclusion from your letter to INEC are as follows:
You said you are confused and had no answer to the questions you asked in the said letter! Learned Senior Comrade, this is unlike you. You are known to always say it as it is. You always express your personal opinion no matter whose ox is gored! Your unusual “confusion” now is confusing me.
You said, people have been calling you to ask this question. I believe they would have even sent text messages and used other social media platforms. Sir, do not trade away your hard-earned long-standing integrity to the whims and caprices of desperate politicians. If they give you a very fat brief and even promised to pay you in dollars, you may accept it; but I know that you know in your inner conscience that it is a lost case, DOA (Dead on Arrival).
I am not a lawyer sir, I am a prodemocracy activist. I was the Chairman of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights in Lagos State in 1994 and National Publicity Secreatry of the body from 1997 to 2001 under the presidency of Dr. Bekololari Ransome-Kuti, Barrister Femi Falana and late Dr. Festus Iyayi. However, I have been mentored by great lawyers like Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN, Femi Falana SAN, Kunle Kalejaiye SAN and Babatunde Ogala SAN, to name but a few. I am told and I verily believe that when the provision of a constitution, law an edict is not ambiguous, written in straight simple English language, it needs no misinterpretation. I am told, and I verily believe that, in fact, where the law wants an affirmative action or stipulation, the word “shall” would be use.
On your curious poser sir, let me say, with utmost respect that even a fresh graduate of the law school will affirm that the position of the constitution is very clear; that the FCT is a mere addition upgraded to the the status of a state. It stands logic in the head, morally, politically, economically and what have you, for FCT to want to assume a status not provided for it by the constitution and for which your “callers” want to desperately adorn the FCT with now.
Your request for clarifications and the manner it was worded expressly showed that you acknowledge n the victory of the Presidential Candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; a fellow Comrade in the prodemocracy struggle that birthed the current democracy in Nigeria. I appreciate your direct or indirect recognition of the victory of Asiwaju in the just concluded presidential elections.
Senior Comrade, I have been told and I verily believes that a man should not be a judge in his own case. Therefore, your letter to the INEC Chairman, with the greatest respect, is preposterous, unnecessary and misdirected.
Learned Silk, I most humbly, request that you seek the interpretation or clarification in the court of law. The INEC Chairman is not a judge. INEC is not part of the judiciary, it is an organ of the executive arm of the government and I think you should have known that.
Finally, Senior Comrade Sir, please be calming down.
Tunde Oladunjoye writes this piece from in Abeokuta, Ogun State and can be reached on Oladunjoyelo@gmail.com
February 28, 2023.
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