A serving judge in Osun State High Court , Justice Oloyede
Folahanmi has called on the State Assembly to impeach the Governor Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola
in line with the provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria over non- payment of salaries in the state for over Eight months, he
further urged them to investigate the alleged mismanagement of the state’s
financial resources by the governor and his deputy.
I shall summarize Sections 128 and
129 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 128(2) empower the State House
of Assembly to expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution or
administration of laws within its legislative competence and in the
disbursement or administration of funds appropriated by it.
The question now is, will the state
Assembly act in this instance since majority of the sitting Honorable member are members of the Ruling party in the State which the Governor is also a
founding member?
In a situation where the state Assembly
refused to act for selfish reasons without considering the interest of the
masses that voted them into office, the law provide for an alternative way we
can use to compel them to do what they ought to do but failed to do so. This is
called an ORDER OF MANDAMUS.
In Gani fawehinmi V. Akilu &
ors it was held that an order of
mandamus could be issued to compel the Attorney General of Lagos State to issue
a fiat to a private prosecutor to prosecute the accused person, Also in
Attorney General of Anambra state V. Nwobodo (1992) NWLR PT 256,711 It was held
that an order of mandamus may now be issued to compel a court, a judicial
officer to perform an act, which is its or their public, official or
ministerial duty, in this case private persons successfully obtained an order
of mandamus compelling the AG to endorse and certify their private information.
Who is a public officer? Public Officer
includes any person in the public service of the government, on whom duty is
imposed under an Act or regulation to exercise a power, from this definition members
of the Osun State House of Assembly are Public Officers and can be compelled to
investigate and impeach Governor Rauf Aregbesola if found guilty of
mismanagement of the state funds that has lead to a total run down of the state
treasury.
Who can compel a public Officer?
A private person (you and i) can compel public office holders by an Order of
Mandamus.
So what are you waiting for Sue
the *****
Thank you
Yours faithfully,
Oyenike Alliyu-Adebiyi
No comments:
Post a Comment