| The federal government anticipates that the Court of Appeal will this week rule in its favor and declare the seat of the vice president vacant. If it does do so, a top source in the presidency has strongly indicated that Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Action Congress, will be arrested and charged with seditious offences.
Atiku was sacked by President Olusegun Obasanjo without recourse to either the courts or the National Assembly; hence, the appeal. Counsel to the federal government Afe Babalola had gone to the Court of Appeal to seek the invalidation of Atiku’s continued stay in office after the vice president picking up the presidential ticket of the Action Congress. The vice president had been elected into office in 1999 as a ruling People’s Democratic Party candidate and won a second term in office on the same platform. Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides immunity for the holder of the office of the vice president, among other elected public officers. Meanwhile, President Obasanjo met with the party’s Senate caucus, led by the president of the Senate, Ken Nnamani, at the Aso Villa. At the meeting on Friday afternoon, Obasanjo told the caucus that he expected a favorable ruling from the Court of Appeal this week. The meeting, it was further learned, turned out to be unexpectedly stormy when the president began to speak about the things he planned to do, including arresting Atiku the moment the he loses the case and is without immunity. Kicking off his party’s presidential campaign last week in Katsina, Atiku sounded defiant about the seeming intrigues against him. “The worst-case scenario is to be arrested and thrown into jail to rot away before the elections,” he said. |
Feb192007