The Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, a non-governmental organisation, has demanded the recall of 35 members of the Nigerian National Assembly for allegedly abandoning their duties while engaged as legislators of the ECOWAS Parliament.
The Administrative Secretary of ALDRAP, Mr Jesse Williams, who spoke to DAILY POST in Abuja on Thursday, explained that members of the association are constituents of the concerned lawmakers, and are affected by the alleged abandonment of representation and legislative duties by the 35 legislators.
Williams alleged that the 35 National Assembly members, who were elected by Nigerians to represent them, are now full-fledged members of the ECOWAS Parliament after their inauguration in April 2024.
“As evidence of dereliction of their duties at the National Assembly, the 35 legislators have relocated to Kano State which is the venue of the sitting of the inaugural plenary session of the ECOWAS Parliament,” he observed, noting that the lawmakers are being paid as full time legislators of the ECOWAS Parliament, while also holding onto their seats, salaries, allowances and other privileges as members of the National Assembly.
DAILY POST reports that the Second Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament is holding between the May 20 and 25, 2024, in Kano. For the duration of the session, the parliamentarians, including 35 members of the Nigerian National Assembly and those of other ECOWAS states, would be fully engaged in the proceedings of the ECOWAS Parliament.
The ECOWAS Parliament which was established under Articles 6 and 13 of the ECOWAS Revised Treaty of 1993, is composed of 115 seats, out of which Nigeria occupies 35.
The 35 members of the National Assembly who were inaugurated as members of the ECOWAS Parliament include Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, the Acting Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament.
They also include Mohammed Ali Ndume, Osita Ngwu, Onyeka Peter Nwebonyi, Ireti Heebah Kingibe, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, Sadiq Suleiman Umar, Idiat Oluranti Adebule, Sharafadeen Ali, Jimoh Ibrahim, Ipalibo Harry Banigo, Aniekan Bassey, and Asuquo Ekprnyong.
Others are Osita Banaventure Izunaso, Lawal Adamu Usman, Ibrahim Lamido, David S.U Jimkutu, Benjamin Kalu, Ahmed Idris, Dawodu Bashiru, Awaji-Inombek Dagomie Abiante, Bamidele Salam, Canice Moore Nwachukwu, Munachim Umezuruike, Usman Auyo Ibrahim, Ahmed Munir, Zakariya Dauda Yampa, Sani Nazifi, Paschal A. Agbodike, Mohammed Abubaksr Ahmed, Udeogalanya Peter Aniekwe, Sulaiman Abubakar Gumi, Blessing Amadi, Zainab Gimba and Blessing Onuh.
Justifying the demand for the recall of the lawmakers, Williams noted that ALDRAP had earlier asked the leadership of the National Assembly to declare their seats vacant due to their ‘illegal’ concurrent membership of the National Assembly and the ECOWAS Parliament.
“The purpose of this advocacy by ALDRAP is to enlighten members of the public to know that the said legislators are collecting double renumeration from both the National Assembly and the ECOWAS Parliament at the same time in this same Nigeria where the Federal Government says there is not enough money to pay minimum wage of N54,000.
“Despite a Pre-Action Notice previously submitted to the National Assembly, the Senate President and the Speaker have refused to declare the seats of the said members vacant. Therefore, a lawsuit is to proceed full-fledged,” he said.
DAILY POST reported that ALDRAP had earlier asked the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to declare the seats of 40 lawmakers vacant for belonging the Nigerian National Assembly, the ECOWAS Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament at the same time, and collecting emoluments from all.
ALDRAP insisted that the practice of serving the various bodies at the same time violates Section 68(1) of the 1999 Constitution and Article 18, Supplementary Act of the ECOWAS Parliament, 2017, which prohibits a serving member of a parliament serving with it and collecting emoluments.
Following the refusal of the Senate President and the Speaker to comply with the request, ALDRAP served a Pre-Action Notice on the principal officers, and copied the Clerk of the National Assembly, indicating its readiness to seek judicial redress if the call was not heeded.
ALDRAP, in the letter dated 8th April, 2024, signed by its Secretary, Dr Tonye Clinton Jaja, warned that in the event that the leadership of the National Assembly fails to comply with its request within seven working days from the date of the letter, it shall commence a lawsuit to seek the interpretation of a court of law.
In the alternative, it offered to draft two bills for domestication of both the international instruments establishing both the ECOWAS Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament.
The leadership of the National Assembly failed to comply with the Pre-Action Notice, prompting ALDRAP to file a suit at the Abuja Federal High Court.
In the suit, ALDRAP asked the court to determine whether having regard to Section 68 (1) (a) of the 1999 Constitution (as altered), any member of the National Assembly who wishes to take a seat at the ECOWAS Parliament and/or the Pan-African Parliament, ought to first resign from the National Assembly.
“In the alternative: whether having regard to Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution (as altered), the provisions of the ECOWAS Parliament legislation, which allocates 35 seats to Nigeria, has not yet become legally operative within Nigeria considering that both the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly have not subjected the said parliament to the legislative procedure prescribed under Section 12.”
ALDRAP prayed the court for an order directing the Clerk of the National Assembly to immediately discontinue the payment of salaries and all forms of remuneration to all the 40 lawmakers who were recently inaugurated as either members of the 6th Assembly of the ECOWAS Parliament and/or the Pan-African Parliament.
In the same vein, it asked the court to order the 6th defendant (INEC) to immediately conduct bye-elections within 30 days from the date of the vacancy to fill all 40 vacant seats at the National Assembly.
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ECOWAS Parliament: Group, constituents demand recall of 35 NASS members for abandoning duties