Why we won’t touch governors immunity clause – House of Reps

- The House of Representatives’ Special Ad-hoc Committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution has said the immunity clause for sitting governors in the country will not be reviewed

- Yusuf Lasun, the deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, insists that “there is nothing wrong in the immunity that is already in the Constitution”

-The lawmaker reveals that the clause does not immune the governors against criminal infractions but only protects them from likely distractions through civil litigations

The House of Representatives’ Special Ad-hoc Committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution has given reasons why the immunity clause for sitting governors in the country will not be reviewed as stipulated in the Constitution.

Yusuf Lasun, the deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, while fielding questions from newsmen, insisted that “there is nothing wrong in the immunity that is already in the Constitution.”

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The deputy Speaker led members of House’s Special Ad-hoc Committee to Abeokuta on a three-day retreat on the review of the 1999 Constitution titled “The Imperatives of Constitution Review/Amendment in Nation Building.”

Lasun, while revealing issues touched by the Committee at the retreat said “It is a no go area” in the on-going review or amendment of the living document of the country.

According to the lawmaker, the clause did not immune the governors against criminal infractions but only protected them from likely distractions through civil litigations.

He noted that altering or removing the clause as was being clamoured for by Nigerians, would distract the governors from performing their administrative duties properly.

“There is nothing wrong in the immunity that is already in the Constitution because it doesn’t say that the person cannot be prosecuted after he has left the office.

“Nobody is immune when it comes to prosecution that borders on criminal charges but if you have to go to take a sitting Governor to court on civil matters when governor whose hands lie the lives of the people of the whole State then that will bring distraction to governance.

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“The immunity as it is today we are no going to touch it, I’m not going to deceive you and I’m not going to tell lies. The maximum years a governor stays in office eight years and whatever offence that he might have committed while in office is still as fresh as if it has just been committed yesterday,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Senate is in the process of amending the constitution to grant immunity to lawmakers at federal and state levels of government.

The amendment will grant immunity for Nigeria’s more than 1200 lawmakers at federal and state levels of government thereby absolving them of criminal and civil prosecution for at least four years.