Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has faulted the reported expulsion of the Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, (North West) Alhaji Inuwa Abdul-Kadir, SAN.
The group affirmed that such illegal action adopted by a section of the national hierarchy of the ruling party in Nigeria without due respect for a subsisting action before a competent court of law on the same subject matter was a direct affront to the avowed principle of respect for rule of law as espoused by President Muhammadu Buhari in almost all his public speeches.
HURIWA appealed to Buhari “to call his national party officials to order and to stay action on any petition against Inuwa Abdulkadir who is a life bencher of the Nigerian body of benchers and one of the few most reputable nationalists in politics in the country, pending the determination of the pending and subsisting court case on the same subject matter.”
HURIWA also reminded the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole “that as a one time tested and trusted Unionist and a two terms governor who swore an oath to protect the sanctity of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 (as amended) he must be weary of associating himself with treacherous, anti-democratic and unconstitutional actions such as the one manifested in the media announcement from his governing board of the ruling APC which purports to have expelled Abdulkadir.”
HURIWA, in a statement to DAILY POST on Sunday, signed by its National Coordinator Emmanuel Onwubiko, further reminded the APC “that he who goes to equity must go with clean hands.”
The rights group asked the officials “not to throw stones because they too live in glass house meaning that since they are the officials charged with ensuring that the principle of rule of law takes preeminence at all times, they must not therefore be seen dancing naked in the public square by undermining the supremacy of the Constitution.”
HURIWA challenged the national leadership of the APC “to show good example as a party that respects the tenets of the principle of the rule of law in the sense that no adversarial action capable of undermining the sacredness of the constitution should be linked to the party.”
It stated that “the reported expulsion or suspension of Abdul-Kadir, a former Sokoto state Attorney General and a former federal cabinet minister, without fair hearing offends the fundamental kernel of the sanctity of the principle of rule of law and amounts to disobedience of the judicial powers of the federation clothed on the Courts of competent jurisdiction including the Sokoto High Court of Justice which is currently handling a legal challenge mounted by Abdul-Kadir questioning the validity of the petition originated from the Sokoto state chapter of the ruling party upon which the a section of the national leadership of the APC relied on to reach the pre-determined but altogether unconstitutional conclusion which in any event is a nullity having regards to section 1(1) of the Nigerian Constitution which says all provisions of the constitution are binding on all persons and all authorities and section 36(5) which grants fair hearing to all citizens even as section 6 gives the judicial powers of Nigeria to the Courts of competent jurisdiction.”
HURIWA said it has sent a petition to the President Buhari and the office of the Attorney General of the Federation “to urge them to uphold the sanctity of the Constitution and stop the overzealous section of the executives of APC at the national level from committing an outrageous rape of the grund norm and the supreme law of the Constitution by compelling them to reverse with immediate effect the kangaroo decision to expel Abdulkadir even whilst a court matter is ongoing on the same theme.”
It added, “We are shocked to read that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC had upheld the disciplinary actions of Magajin Gari “A” Ward, Sokoto North Local Government, and the Party’s Sokoto State Executive Committee on the Party’s National Vice Chairman (North West), Inuwa Abdulkadir over anti-party activities.
“This unconstitutional decision to normalise what looked like politically procured mob action from the ward level against a respected national official of the party who had already gone to the court to seek redress against these allegedly paid petitioners is nothing but the worst case scenario for a political party that has formed government at the center and which is more obliged to respect the Constitution in other not to create room for anarchy and doom in the body polity which they now govern as the party that has formed the federal government of Nigeria for the time being.
“This ill-adviced decision which breaches the Principle of Rule of law which President Muhammadu Buhari preaches must be withdrawn forthwith or Nigerians will view the current government as a pretender who has no regard for the law.”
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