From Fred Itua, Abuja
Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, has descended on the House of Representatives over its summon of President Muhammadu Buhari to explain plans by bus administration to fix the insecurity challenges of the country.
He said in a presidential system of Government, the concept of the separation of powers must be respected. He said the framers of the constitution didn’t envisage that the Parliament will one day summon the head of the Executive.
He said: “I am a constitutionalist.i believe that we are operating a presidential system of government. I believe in the concept of the separation of power. We have three equal arms of government. The framers of our constitution did not envisage that one arm of government will be summoning the head another co- equal arm of government to come and offer explanation on the floor.
“I think those of you who are familiar with the constitutional process, I don’t think you’ve ever heard that the US parliament had ever invited their president to appear before the house of Representatives or the US Senate unless for the purpose of budget or to address the state of the nation.
“In any event, we also have the concept of executive privilege. The executive arm of government has the power to claim executive privilege at any time any of such invitation is extended.
“It is not envisaged by the framers of the constitution that a day will come where the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who heads the executive arm would be asked to come and testify in the House of Representatives or the Senate. I do not also support that. I don’t believe that the President should come.”