Strong indication emerged weekend that the leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is talking to its legal team on the possibilities of challenging the latest Executive Order which they saw as being against the spirit of the Nigerian Constitution.
In a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP argued that the order was in total disregard for the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
The party argued that “The Nigerian Constitution does not, under any section, confer what it described as ‘fascist powers’ on the President and that there can be no legitimate latitude of interpretation placed on sections 5 and 15 (5) of the 1999 Constitution cited as justifications for the executive order, that can excuse it”.
“Therefore, President Buhari’s unilateral executive order is a travesty of justice and rule of law, as it vehemently seeks to hijack and usurp the powers of both the legislature and the courts and vest it on himself, so that he can use same at will, as a political instrument, to haunt, traumatise, harass and victimise perceived political opponents.
“In order words, Mr. President wants to change our democratic governance to a military regime, in line with his lamentation, two days ago, that the fight against corruption would be better under a military regime than under a democracy.”