Lawyer drags Jonathan, Mark, Tambuwal to court over proposed National Conference

Tunji Abayomi wants confab stopped for absence of enabling law by the National Assembly

A constitutional lawyer, Tunji Abayomi, on Friday approached the Federal High Court, Abuja asking it to stop the Federal Government from going ahead with the proposed National Conference.

The conference is scheduled to be inaugurated in Abuja on March 17 by President Goodluck Jonathan.

A list of 492 delegates to the confab was released on Thursday by the government. It had earlier appointed its principal officers last Monday.

But in a suit no FHC/ABJ/CS/167/204 dated March 3, Mr. Abayomi contended that Mr. Jonathan lacked the power to convoke or convene the National Conference without the backing of a law enacted by National Assembly.

The Senate President, David Mark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal and the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, were joined as defendants in the suit.

Mr. Abayomi asked the court to determine whether or not a national conference could be convened by the president and/or the federal government without an Act of the National Assembly.

In an affidavit deposed to by one Patrick Bisong to support the suit, the lawyer alleged that the Federal Government had already planned to spend billions of naira belonging to the public to finance the confab even though there was no law enabling the president to organise it.

The plaintiff also asked the court to restrain the government from convening the conference so that billions of tax payers’ money would not be spent unconstitutionally.

He also asked for intense judicial scrutiny of the alleged deliberate speed with which Mr. Jonathan was convening the conference.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.

Mr. Abayomi however confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone conversation on Friday night that the case had been assigned to a judge.