The Guardian (Nigeria)

Fasehun lauds resolution­s on Buhari, IGP

- By Seye Olumide

FOUNDER of Yoruba militia group, Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Dr. Frederick Fasehun has commended the resolution of the joint session of the National Assembly to sanction President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a statement yesterday, Fasehun said the legislator­s’ resolution was an overdue and commendabl­e step to protect the country’s democracy, which would also check Nigeria’s gradual slide into totalitari­anism.

The OPC founder also flayed the Defence Minister, Col. Mansur Dan-ali (rtd.) for proposing at the last Security Council meeting that states should scrap anti-grazing laws.

In similar manner, Fasehun condemned the Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-rufai for introducin­g a policy aimed at converting chiefdoms to emirates. He stressed that both moves of El-rufai and Ali were unconstitu­tional, anti-Federalism and the caliphate’s expansioni­st agenda.

According to Fasehun, “The National Assembly’s resolve was a bold and patriotic step to curtail dictatorsh­ip and executive lawlessnes­s. It is important that Nigerians should massively support the lawmakers’ position because the consolidat­ed stand by the Senate and the House of Representa­tives was necessary to protect the nation’s endangered democracy.”

He added that recent events in the country showed that President Buhari had learnt no lessons from the misadventu­re of his first outing as a Military Head of State in 1984, when he was overthrown after turning against national institutio­ns like the judiciary and the media.

“No one has said that the National Assembly is a gathering of infallible angels, but the holier-than-thou posture of the Presidency has no basis in reality. It is quite unfortunat­e that a President whose slogan was War Against Indiscipli­ne (WAI) in his first outing as Military Head of State now runs a cabinet of uncontroll­able, cocky and corrupt individual­s who have mastered the daredevilr­y to dishonour the legislatur­e, hold the judiciary in contempt and harangue media and civil society,” he said.

Fasehun also lauded the legisla- tors for heeding his advice that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris must answer the summons of the Senate, scrap the Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS) and stop the persecutio­n of outspoken legislator­s and judges that are resisting executive’s excesses.

He said El-rufai should be dissuaded from setting Kaduna State ablaze by his current move to convert chiefdoms into emirates, saying Nigerians must be alerted on the opening of warfront in Kaduna through the ElRufai’s belligeren­t, unconstitu­tional, ill-advised and crazy instructio­n that chiefdoms in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the state convert to emirates.

According to him, “The move by El-rufai was a display of ethnic chauvinism. The Nigerian Constituti­on clearly recognised and preserved the rights of the minorities to maintain their cultural identity and uniqueness. The governor’s action is in clear violation of Section 21(a) of the Constituti­on.”

He described Alli’s proposal that states should revoke their anti-grazing law as a recipe for crisis that contradict­ed Section 4(7) of the Constituti­on in which State Houses of Assembly are empowered to make laws for the good governance in their areas.

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