Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has stated that the First Lady, Patience Jonathan, has no constitutional powers to investigate any matter anywhere in Nigeria.
He said so in reference to the First Lady’s moves to constitute a panel on May 6th, 2014 in order to investigate the Chibok missing girls scandal.
Falana cited the Supreme Court judgment, “in Fawehinmi v. Babangida (2003) 3 NWLR (PT 808) 604 that the power of the President to set up a Commission of Inquiry is limited to the Federal Capital Territory by virtue of the Tribunal of Inquiry Act (CAP T21 ) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
He said, “Therefore, the committee set up by the President and inaugurated on Tuesday, May 6, 2014 to probe the abduction of the girls is best a ministerial act. But the First Lady has no power whatsoever to institute a panel to investigate any matter in any part of Nigeria.
“To that extent, the panel of inquiry alleged to have been set up by the First Lady is illegal, unconstitutional, null and void. It should be disbanded without any further delay.”
He also slammed highly placed figures connected to the Jonathan administration who had claimed that no girls were in fact missing.
He said, “In spite of the inauguration of the Presidential Committee to investigate the abduction of the over 200 girls and the publication of the names of about 185 of the missing girls by the CAN some political leaders have insisted that no child has been abducted.
“Such level of insensitivity is being displayed by highly placed persons at a time that the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, has admitted that the criminal sect abducted the innocent girls and threatened that they would be sold into slavery.”
He added, “Why has the Federal Government accepted the offer of the United States’ Government to join in the frivolous -search for the girls since they are no longer missing?
“No doubt, the incendiary statements credited to certain people to the effect that “no child is missing” must have accentuated the agony of the parents of the abducted girls some of whom had taken part in street demonstrations title ‘Bring Back Our Girls’.”