The spokesman for the Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, has
suggested that President Muhammadu Buhari stopped informing the
national assembly about his being out of the country so as not to make
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo the acting president.
According to him, the last time Osinbajo was confirmed as the acting
president, the former Lagos State attorney general kicked out Buhari’s
ally in the Department of State Services.
Speaking on ChannelsTV’s ‘Politics Today’, he held the opinion that
the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had been stripped of many of his
duties.
“There have been serial assaults on that office for a long time now.
Since after Osinbajo sacked Lawal Daura, there has never been any data
transmission to the national assembly whenever the president is
travelling out of the country,” said Odumakin.
Lawal Daura was the director general of the DSS from July 2, 2015, to
August 7, 2018, when his appointment was terminated by then acting
President Yemi Osinbajo. He was appointed following Ita Ekpeyong’s
dismissal on July 2, 2015, by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Odumakin added, “Outside that, we have seen that most of the functions
given to his office have been stripped.
“Many of them have been taken to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
“You can say that most of those functions are at the discretion of the
president but the question of the president’s transmission of power to
the vice president when he is leaving the country is a constitutional
matter.
“The constitution says that when the president is going out of the
country, he shall write to the national assembly, transmit to the Vice
and when he comes back, he will send another letter… that has not been
done in this case.
“What we have now seen is the chief of staff (Abba Kyari), taking
bills to London for the president to sign.”
Kyari’s had travelled to London on Monday to submit a bill for his assent.
