Senator Bulkachuwa asks court to stop ICPC probe over alleged ‘judicial interference’
The former senator representing Bauchi north senatorial district, Adamu Bulkachuwa, has approached the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to restrict the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, from investigating and arresting him.
DAILY POST reports that the senator had during the valedictory session of the 9th Senate, publicly confessed to having influenced his wife, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa’s decision as Appeal Court judge to favour his colleagues in the Senate.
His confession had ignited a widespread controversy across Nigeria.
The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in the wake of the outrage that trailed the revelation, called on the police and the ICPC to investigate the senator.
The ICPC, in line with its mandate to investigate corrupt practices, invited the senator for questioning.
After receiving the invitation by the ICPC, Bulkachuwa, through his lawyer, Donald Ajibowu, wrote to the agency to reschedule his appearance to 6 July, based on ill-health.
However, three days ahead of the rescheduled date, Bulkachuwa filed a suit urging the court to bar the agency from investigating him, PREMIUM TIMES reports.
He listed the Federation’s Attorney General, the National Assembly Clerk, the State Security Service (SSS), the ICPC, and Nigeria Police Force as defendants.
The senator in the suit filed on July 3rd, sought a “judicial interpretation of Section 1 of the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act 2017, which confers immunity on him from any civil or criminal litigation in respect of any utterance he makes on the floor of the Senate in his capacity as a serving Senator.”
He urged the court to declare his invitation as “illegal, arbitrary, oppressive, unconstitutional and a gross violation and a likelihood of continuous infraction of the applicant’s fundamental human right as guaranteed by Sections 34, 35, 36, 37, 41 and 46 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).”
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