{"id":26752,"date":"2020-06-22T17:12:11","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T16:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=26752"},"modified":"2020-06-22T17:12:11","modified_gmt":"2020-06-22T16:12:11","slug":"southern-middle-belt-leaders-sue-buhari-foe-n50b-over-marginalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=26752","title":{"rendered":"Southern, Middle-Belt Leaders sue Buhari for N50b over marginalisation."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yemi Oyeyemi<\/strong>, Abuja
\nElder statesmen and leaders of socio-cultural platforms in the Southern region of Nigeria have slammed a N50 billion suit against President Muhammadu Buhari at the Federal High Court Abuja over alleged lopsided appointments.
\nIn the suit filed on their behalf by Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), the group led by 16 elders alleged that since the inception of his administration in 2015, president Buhari’s appointments contravened the provisions of the 1999 Constitution and the Federal Character Principle.
\nThe elders listed in the suit marked FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/595\/2020 include Chief Edwin Clark, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, Dr. John Nnia Nwodo, Dr. Pogu Bittus, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Alaowei Bozimo, Mrs Sarah Doketri, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife and Air Commodore Idongsit Nkanga.
\nOthers are Senator Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, Prof Julie Umukoro, Elder Stephen Bangoji, Alhaji Tijani Babatunde, Mrs. Rose Obuoforibo, Mr Adakole Ijogi and Dr. Charles Nwakeaku.
\nThe plaintiffs further alleged that the Southern region has been deliberately marginalized by the President Buhari-led government.
\nThey are praying the court to among other things, determine whether it was not \u201creckless and adverse to the interest of Nigeria\u201d, for President Buhari to obtain a loan facility from the Islamic Development Bank, African Development Bank, the World Bank, China, Japan, and Germany amounting to $22.7 billion (USD), for infrastructural development, only to allocate the bulk of the fund to the Northern region.
\nThey are seeking a declaration that the loan facility purportedly for infrastructural development wherein less than 1% of the amount is to be allocated to the South East Zone of Nigeria for specific infrastructural development, violates section 16 (1) (a) (b) and S16 (2) (a) (b) (c) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
\nThey also want \u201cA declaration that the 1st Defendant\u2019s procurement of any loan which would increase Nigeria\u2019s outstanding debt by up to 30% of its GDP or which would increase its interest payment above 50% of government revenue is unconstitutional\u201d.
\nAside from President Buhari, also listed as 2nd to 4th Defendants in the matter are the Attorney-General of the Federation, Clerk of National Assembly, and the Federal Character Commission.
\nSpecifically, the plaintiffs, in the suit they filed through a consortium of lawyers comprising of 10 Senior Advocates of Nigeria led by Chief Solomon Asemota, SAN, and Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, are further praying the court to determine:
\n\u201cWhether the power to appoint designated public officers including permanent secretaries, principal representatives of Nigeria abroad, which is vested in the 1st Defendant has been lawfully exercised by him since the inception of his administration from 2015 till date and whether his actions are in breach of Sections 171(5), 814(3) (4) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
\n\u201cWhether the power to appoint Nigeria\u2019s Armed Services Chiefs, other Commanders or top officials of the respective Armed Forces Higher and High Commands\u2019 General Staff ; namely the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) and Chief of Airforce Staff (CA8); the other statutorily established Nigerian National Security agencies or services , namely: The Inspector General of the Nigerian Police (1GP), the Directors General (DGs) of the State Security Service (SSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA); the Heads of National Security Associated Federal Government (FG) establishments, namely the Nigerian Civil Defense and Security Corps (NCDSC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigerian Customs and Excise Service, the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS), the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCS), the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA), the National Youth Service corps (NYSC), the National Security Adviser (NSA), the Ministers of Defense, Interior, Police and the respective National Security ministries\u2019 Permanent Secretaries\u2019 which is vested in the 1st Defendant, has been lawfully exercised by the 1st Defendant since the inception of his administration and whether these appointments are in compliance with 81(2), 814(3)(4), 8217(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
\nThey urged the court to award N50billion against the Defendants to represent punitive, aggravated and exemplary damages to the constituents of the Plaintiffs for the illegal, wrongful discriminatory and unconstitutional acts committed by the 1st Defendant against the people of the Plaintiffs\u2019 states and geopolitical zones.
\nMeanwhile, Justice Okon Abang has fixed July 10 to hear the case, even as he directed Chief Ozekhome, SAN, who represented the plaintiffs on Monday to serve the court processes on all the defendants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yemi Oyeyemi, Abuja Elder statesmen and leaders of socio-cultural platforms in the Southern region of Nigeria have slammed a N50 billion suit against President Muhammadu Buhari at the Federal High Court Abuja over alleged lopsided appointments. In the suit filed on their behalf by Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), the group led by 16 elders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[31,352,830],"class_list":["post-26752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-buhari","tag-court","tag-south"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}