Senate: Supreme Court can’t stop constitution amendment

by Ranti Joseph

The Senate has argued that the Supreme Court lacked the powers to stop the National Assembly from performing its legislative duties as far as the process of amending the 1999 Constitution is concerned.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and Public Affairs, Eyinnaya Abaribe, said this while reacting to an order of the apex Court issued last week directing the National Assembly to maintain the status quo in its bid to amend the Constitution.

The Federal Government had instituted a suit challenging the powers of the lawmakers to perform its duties under the Constitution.

The lawmakers had planned to override the President’s veto after a review by the Constitution amendment Committees of the two chambers.

But Abaribe, in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Sunday said the Supreme Court was wrong to stop the lawmakers in the performance of their legislative duties.

“The Supreme Court is wrong. The law does not allow one arm of the government to stop another arm of government from performing its duties.

The Supreme Court cannot stop us from legislating and if they say that the Supreme Court is stopping us from making laws, it is misleading and it amounts to misreading the powers of the Supreme Court,” he said.

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