Wednesday 20 March 2013

Tambuwal: Alams pardon ill-timed

by Mahmud Lalo, Lagos

Speaker Aminu Tambuwal
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has said the state pardon granted former Bayelsa State governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was ill-timed.
Speaking on the Hausa Service of Radio France International monitored yesterday, Tambuwal said even though the government has the powers to grant the pardon, the decision came at the wrong time.
“In my own opinion I am not in support of the decision taken by the presidency,” he said.
“However, as a government, they have the right to do so, but the question we need to ask here is, is this the right time to take such decision?”
The state pardon was approved by the Council of State last Tuesday at a meeting in Abuja which Tambuwal himself attended. But he did not say in the RFI interview if he raised any objection during the council meeting. Tambuwal said many members of the House have expressed displeasure with the state pardon granted Alamieyeseigha.
Speaking on the controversial immunity for Federal lawmakers, the speaker said what many people “don’t understand is that the law existed in the past, which allows members to make comments on the floor of the House by saying the truth.”
He said but there was a court judgement that said the law was not in harmony with the political system of the country because it first came into being in 1965.
“Therefore it was proposed that the law should be revived in order to give the legislators that cover,” the speaker said.
“Let me give you an example: in Malawi there are some legislators that were charged with treason because of some comments they made on the floor of the assembly over the controversy that followed the death of the former president. So if as a lawmaker you don’t have that cover, you won’t be able to make any input before the House,” he added.
DailyTrust

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