…Says the President invoked an Act of the National Assembly

Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has backed the lockdown of Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari, claiming that it is right and in accordance with relevant laws of Nigeria.

Osinbajo gave the justification barely 24 hours after the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, had thrown his weight behind the presidential order, which has been condemned by many legal pundits and activists as illegal.

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Osinbajo said on Tuesday that the questioning the legality of the presidential order restricting movements in the FCT, Lagos and Ogun States was unnecessary as the action taken is not only important but well backed by extant Nigerian laws.

According to the Vice President, the steps announced by Buhari are proactive, very relevant, important and backed by law.

“I am not so sure some of the people who have commented on the issue have come across the Quarantine Act.  There is a Quarantine Act of 1926, it’s been published in all of the Laws of Nigeria, every edition of the Laws of Nigeria, it is there,” Osunbajo said.

Referring specifically to the part of the legislation that empowers the President to order movement restrictions in any part the country, Prof. Osinbajo said, “what the Act does is that it allows the President to designate any local area, any part of the country, as a place that may be infected or under the threat of a communicable disease, and he can then make regulations of any kind.

“For instance, he can say, people should not go out; no public gatherings etc. So, it is a regulation that gives the President powers and these powers come from the National Assembly because, of course, it is an act of the National Assembly.”

The Vice President explained that by virtue of the constitutional rules, the 1926 Act is deemed to be an Act of the National Assembly.

“So, the President has extensive powers under the Quarantine Act of 1926. Also, Governors have extensive powers under the same Quarantine Act.”

Prof. Osinbajo urged all interested individuals and groups to personally go through the legislation in order to understand the provisions therein, noting that “it is barely one-page legislation, so it is not particularly difficult to find the relevant provisions and it is not particularly difficult to read, very straightforward. So, the President has all the powers.”

Prof. Osinbajo said “many of us are not familiar with the Influenza pandemic that killed several million around the world in 1918. At that time regulations were made here, very similar to what we have today, although that was under the colonial authorities.

“The Influenza pandemic was referred to as the Spanish Flu and it killed thousands in Nigeria and millions across the world then

“They also banned public gatherings, banned gatherings in places of worship then. So, there is even good historical precedence for some of what we are doing today.”

Vanguard