The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN, says the National Assembly has no constitutional power to summon President Muhammadu Buhari over operational use of the Armed Forces.
Malami in a statement by Dr Umar Gwandu, his Personal Assistant on Media made the declaration while condoling the bereaved the victims of the associated insecurity in the country.
He maintained that national security is not about publicity and the nation’s security architecture cannot be exposed for the sake of getting publicity.
“The right of the president to engage the National Assembly and appear before it is inherently discretionary in the president and not at the behest of the National Assembly.
“An invitation that seeks to put the operational use of the Armed Forces to a public interrogation is indeed taking the constitutional rights of law making beyond bounds.
“The president has enjoyed constitutional privileges attached to the office of the president including exclusivity and confidentiality investiture in security operational matters, which remains sacrosanct”.
He said that by summoning the President on National Security operational Matters, the House of Representative operated outside constitutional bounds.
“The management and control of the security sector is exclusively vested in the President by Section 218 (1) of the constitution as the commander in chief of the armed forces including the power to determine the operational use of the Armed Forces.
The Minister, said that the president has recorded tremendous success in containing the hitherto incessant bombing, colossal killings, wanton destruction of lives and property that bedeviled the country before attaining the helm of affairs of the country in 2015.
“The confidentiality of strategies employed by the president as the commander in chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is not open for public exposure in view of security implications in probable undermining of the war against terror.
“The fact Buhari was instrumental to the reclaiming of over 14 Local Governments previously controlled by the Boko Haram in North East is an open secret, the strategies for such achievement are not open for public expose.
