Osun By-Election: Committee Goofed, Decision Fraudulent, Cannot Stand – Hussain

By Fatai Akanji

Senator Mudasiru Hussain who was few minutes ago disqualified by the Screening Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Osun West Senatorial by-election, has described the decision of the committee as fraudulent, illegal and doubtful.

The committee headed by the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Samfara State, Hon said Hussain failed to resign his appointment 30-day before the election as required by the APC constitution and the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Hussain who spoke through his agent, Dr Ajibola Basiru, the Attorny General and Commissioner for Justice of Osun State said: “The provision they quoted in the letter given to my principal is not in the guideline. I challenge them to provide the copy of the guideline they quoted. I don’t think it should be heard, even for their own integrity to just open and read it to us; rather they were engaging in act of rigmarole.

“The constitution of the party is supreme, the only provision in the constitution of our party that requires somebody to resign is Article 31, Section 3 of the constitution and it only relates to somebody holding party office. The question to ask is, by regulation, assuming there is such regulation amend what is in the constitution of the party?

“Secondly, the language they used, according to them, they claimed that my principal said he is serving as a commissioner. That is a lie. They asked in the expression of interest form of any political appointment in a express form; the temporal dimension, the time the political appointment was being held is not stated there.

“Of course he had been a commissioner, he was appointed as a Commissioner. Throughout the screening exercise, he was not asked what happened to that appointment; whether he resigned or not. “That is not even the issue; the language they used in the letter given to Hussain, they claimed that in their guideline, that the aspirant shall not remain an employee in the public service within 30 days preceding the date of an election.

“The Court of Appeal, in the case of Dada and Adeyeye, Part 920 of the Nigeria Weekly Law Report has stated, interpreting the identical provision in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that an appointee is not somebody who is in the employment of public service.

“A commissioner, assuming he is still the commissioner is not an employee. Is it a pensionable employment? That is clearly stated by the Court of Appeal. On Legal ground, the decision of the screening committee cannot stand, on morally ground, the decision is doubtful.

“We are going to appeal this process but we not know that certainly there is danger because people who are supposed to be of credibility can act with whims and caprices. I say with all sense of credibility that the primary will hold and Senator Mudasiru Hussain will trump.

They cannot truncate democracy.

“People that are saying they want internal democracy, people are ready but they are sprinkling up inexistence provision. Assuming there is this provision in the guideline, it contradicts the provision of the Nigerian constitution. The only disability that somebody contesting has is if he or she is employed in public service.

“That has been interpreted. A council chairman, a senator, a commission is not in the public service. The present Governor of Sokoto State was the Speaker of the House of Representatives and he contested for governor under the so called guideline.

“They said they refer to 2014 guideline; 2014 guideline talked about an election that has been done and concluded. This is a by-election, has the constitution made guideline for this? By eviction of time, 2014 guideline cannot ground a bye election.

“And he logic of what they are saying is that assuming you are in employment public service, that means you can never in life participate in by-election of your party, because by constitution, bye election must be conducted with 30 days of notice of death.

“Are you going to be contemplating that the person holding the office would die or resign. In law, in logic, in truth this decision cannot stand. The primary would hold and Senator Hussain would emerge victorious.”