The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, has written the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, sayin
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, has written the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, saying it will be sub-judicial for the upper chamber to insist that the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hammed Ali (retd.) wear the NCS uniform. The AGF wrote the Senate President following a suit filed by a lawyer, Mohammed Ibrahim, on the issue of uniform.
The plaintiff, Ibrahim, in the suit he filed at the Federal High Court Abuja on Monday included Ali, NCS, the National Assembly, the Senate President and the AGF as defendants. In the suit number: FHC/ABJ/CS/207/2017, Ibrahim is seeking a declaration of the court that appointment of the first defendant (CG customs) having been made pursuant to Section 5 and 171 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) “cannot be subjected to the provisions of Customs and Excise Management Act or any other law.”
He also asked the court to declare that the CG “not being a commissioned officer of the Nigeria Customs Service is not mandated by law to wear the NCS uniform.”
Ibrahim urged the court to declare that “the oversight functions of the National Assembly do not extend to compelling, mandating and enforcing the first defendant (CG) to appear before it in uniform.”
The lawyer is also seeking “an order of perpetual injunction restraining the 3rd (the National Assembly) and the fourth defendants (Senate President) from mandating, compelling and enforcing the first defendants to wear uniform in the performance of his duties.”
The customs boss said a copy of the letter written by the AGF was sent to the NCS on Tuesday, adding that he would not go to the Senate today because of the writ of summons on the case.
He said, “We have received a writ of summons from a court on the issue in the Senate. That is the issue of uniform. This morning when we received that, we communicated with the AGF because he is our overall law officer. We said that we had received the writ of summons. What do we do in this regard? The AGF wrote a letter to the Senate President and copied us that based on the summons from the court, all matters relating to the issue are now sub-judicial. We will not appear in the Senate because of the court summons. We will not appear until the court makes a pronouncement.”
The Senate confirmed that it had been communicated on the litigation. When contacted, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, could not however, confirm if the lawmakers would still be expecting the Customs DG today (Wednesday). When asked if the Senate had received a letter from the AGF, he said, “There is a communication but I have not seen the content. So, I am unable to make any concrete response for now. I am not the man (Ali), so I can’t say whether the man is coming or not.”
Punch
