The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, on Thursday stated that some persons are “intimidating” the nation’s judiciary to “gag” the National Assembly.
He stated this while reacting to a motion raised by a member from Kwara State, Razak Atunwa, on the recent court judgement restraining the house from holding public hearing on the Hijab controversy.
There has been a dispute between the Nigerian Law School and a law graduate, Amasa Firdaus, who was not called to bar on the grounds that she wore a hijab to the call-to-bar ceremony.
While the matter was taken to the House of Representatives and a public hearing was fixed for it, a coalition of lawyers, however, filed a suit asking the federal high court in Abuja to stop the house from conducting the hearing — a prayer the court granted.
The Reps members had on Wednesday postponed the rescheduled public hearing to look at the controversy surrounding the prevention of Amasa from being called to bar by the management of the Nigeria Law School.
At its plenary on Thursday, the lawmakers accused the judiciary of “crossing the line” regarding its constitutional role.
In his remarks, Dogara said the court judgment infringed on the powers of the house and would not be tolerated.
According to him, “We know that Nigeria is not Banana Republic and operates on basic principles such as rule of law and separation of power, which states that none of the arms of government should gag the other.
“Just as we cannot gag the judiciary, we also expect same from them. We make laws and the constitution only empower them to interpret the laws.
“But for us to sit here and the judiciary tells us what we should consider and not consider and when to seat, then we are no longer practising democracy.”
The Speaker stated that with the way the judiciary was going, “nothing stops them (the judges) from coming tomorrow and saying the national assembly cannot seat”.
His words, “I don’t think it is us that is intimidating the judiciary like is being alleged. It is some people that are intimidating them from somewhere else, to gag the national assembly.
“We have respected the judiciary a lot and we expect same from them. When the judiciary gets to the level they are now, that spells danger for our democracy. If they insist they must continue this way, we have to part ways.”
On his part, the Chief Whip of the House, Alhassan Doguwa, called on the lawmakers to “individually and collectively defend the integrity of the legislature” on the matter.
He said, “The sovereignty of every nation lies in the people and we are the representatives of the people,” he said, adding: “If we don’t do the needful now that we are going into election, before you know it, out democracy will be in shambles.
“This house will not take this recklessness and nonsense from the judiciary because we are protected by the constitution.”
At the end of the debate, Dogara set up an ad-hoc committee to interface with the judiciary and look into the matter.
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