“National assembly has no power to summon Buhari” – Attorney General

Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has said that the National Assembly lacks the constitutional power to summon President Buhari.

Last week, the house of representatives passed a resolution summoning the president over the rising insecurity in the country.

The president is scheduled to appear before the national assembly on Thursday but it is now uncertain if he will honour the request.

In a statement today, Malami said it was outside the constitutional powers of the national assembly to summon the president over his “operational use of the armed forces”.

The statement read;

“President Buhari of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has recorded tremendous success in containing the hitherto incessant bombing, colossal killings, wanton destruction of lives and property that bedeviled the country before attaining the helm of affairs of the country in 2015.

The confidentiality of strategies employed by the President as the commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not open for public exposore in view of security implications in probable undermining of the war against terror.

The fact that President Muhammadu Buhari was instrumental to the reclaiming of over 14 Local Governments previously controlled by the Boko Haram in North East is an open secret, the strategies for such achievement are not open for public expose.

While condoling the bereaved and sympathising with the victims of the associated insecurity in the country, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN maintained that national security is not about publicity and the nation’s security architecture cannot be exposed for the sake of getting publicity.”