ECOWAS Parliament Complex, Abuja.
A group, the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, a non governmental organisation, has prayed a Federal High Court in Abuja to declare the seats of 40 National Assembly (NASS) members vacant over their concurrent membership of both NASS and the ECOWAS Parliament. membership
Nigeria is officially allocated 35 seats in the ECOWAS Parliament as well as some slots in the Pan-African Parliament.
According to ALDRAP, which seeks to promote transparency and accountability in governance through public interest litigations, advocacy, policy engagements, their dual or multiple membership of NASS and regional parliaments are illegal, hence the court should declare their seats vacant.
ALDRAP had earlier called on the President of the Senate to declare the seats of the affected lawmakers vacant for their belonging to multiple parliament’s at the same time and collecting emoluments from all.
Having failed to comply with the call, it served a pre-action notice on the Senate President and copied the Clerk of the National Assembly, indicating its readiness to seek judicial redress if the call was not heeded.
The group in a letter dated April 8, signed by its Secretary, Dr Tonye Clinton Jaja, warned that in the event that the Senate President failed to comply with its request within seven working days from the date of the letter, it would commence a lawsuit to seek the interpretation of a court of law.
It also offered to draft two bills for domestication of both the international instruments establishing both the ECOWAS Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament.
The group insisted that the practice of serving both bodies violated 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.
ALDRAP therefore urged 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 wished 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.
The group prayed the court to make a “Declaration that the 5th defendant (Clerk of the National Assembly) shall immediately discontinue the payment of salaries and all forms of remuneration to all 40 lawmakers who were recently inaugurated as either members of the 6th Assembly of the ECOWAS Parliament and/or the Pan-African Parliament”.
It also prayed 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.
The group, in the same vein, urged 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.
