by Ranti Joseph
The federal government has dragged the National Assembly before the Supreme Court over the amendment of the 1999 Constitution.
The attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, who filed the suit on behalf of the federal government, through Bayo Ojo (SAN), told the court that due process was not followed by the lawmakers during the amendment process.
In the suit filed on April 20, 2015, the AGF asked the court to determine whether the proposed amendment to the 1999 Constitution by the defendant through sections 3, 4, 12, 14, 21, 23, 36, 39, 40, 43 and 44 of the constitution, referred to as The Fourth Alteration Act 2015, which purportedly altered sections 8, 9, 34, 35, 39, 42, 45, 58, 84, 150, 174 and 211 of the constitution without compliance with the requirements of section 9(3) of the constitution is not unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null and void.
The plaintiff also asked for a declaration that the proposed amendment to the constitution passed by the defendant without complying with the mandatory requirement of section 9(3) and (4) of the said constitution stipulating passage by at least four-fifths majority of all members of each House specified in sections 48 and 49 of the constitution is unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null and void and of no effect whatsoever.
In the affidavit in support of the case deposed to by Theophilus Okwute, a legal practitioner in the Chambers of Messrs Bayo Ojo & Co., the plaintiff said that the purported Fourth Alteration Act 2015 was not passed with the mandatory requirement of four-fifths majority of members of the defendant and the mandatory due processes provided for under the relevant sections of the extant Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.
He said the defendant is making moves, with the tacit consent of all the State Houses of Assembly to employ certain provisions of the Constitution to pass the purported Fourth Alteration Act, 2015 into Law.
