From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
A member of the House of Representatives, Solomon Bob, has berated the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) over its stance on the Emergency Rule declared in Rivers State by President Bola Tinubu.
Bob, in a statement on Thursday, described the condemnation of the Emergency Rule by the NBA as misguided, saying the association was not in a position to dictate to the President on what step to address the crisis in Rivers State.
President Tinubu had declared an Emergency Rule in Rivers State, and suspended the governor, Siminalayi Fubara, the deputy governor, Ngozi Odu, and the state House of Assembly, in response to the political crisis in the state.
However, the NBA condemned the state of emergency and moved its conference, earlier scheduled to hold in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital to Enugu, in protest.
The Rivers State government, in its response, demanded that the NBA return the sum of N300million allegedly given to it for the conference. However, the latter insisted that the money was a gift to it.
Nonetheless, Bob demanded that the money be returned to the coffers of the Rivers State government, failing which the authorities in Port Harcourt should take every necessary step to recover same.
According to him, NBA “cannot circumscribe or amend the clear untrammelled and discretionary powers granted the President by Section 305 of the constitution.
“Neither is the NBA in a position to interpret or determine what measures qualify as extraordinary – which the President is required to adopt under the same section”
Bob added that the NBA does not have “the jurisdictional competence or ethical example to be a barometer for measuring democracy and constitutionalism.”