Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners(ALDRAP) to Sue National Assembly over 40 Legislators concurrently serving as Legislators at the ECOWAS Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament
The Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners-ALDRAP has served a pre-action notice to the Office of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively.
The purpose of the lawsuit is to seek the court of law to determine whether the recent inauguration of 40 legislators of the National Assembly as legislators at the ECOWAS Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament respectively is not a violation of Section 68 (1) (a) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution. That section states that any member of the National Assembly would automatically vacate his or her seat as soon as such a person becomes a member of another legislative house.
The Association,ALDRAP is arguing that the better approach is for direct elections of the 40 Nigerian lawmakers to represent Nigeria at the ECOWAS Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament respectively. Instead of using legislators of the National Assembly whom their constituents elected to represent their federal constituencies.
This a landmark litigation as it seeks to provide interpretation and clarification of this important provision of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution.
This is the second public interest litigation that the Association-ALDRAP has filed in recent times. This is in keeping with the mandate of the ALDRAP which is to provide enlightenment for members of the public on issues related to legislation, legislatures and legislative law and procedures.
