Agbakoba Asks Court To Sack Buhari As Petroleum Minister

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, has urged the Federal High Court in Abuja to restrain the President from continuing to hold the office of the Minister of Petroleum
The people clamouring for the sack of President Muhammadu Buhari as Minister of Petroleum are increasing.

First it was human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, who asked the President to resign following the crisis rocking the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba has also joined the fray.

Agbakoba, has urged the Federal High Court in Abuja to restrain President Buhari from continuing to hold the office.

The SAN contends that Section 138 of the 1999 Constitution forbids the President from “holding any other executive office or paid employment.”

Besides, he argued that Buhari was not screened for the ministerial job by the Senate as required by the constitution.

Agbakoba urged the court to determine “whether by virtue of Section 147(2) of the 1999 Constitution, the President can hold the office of the Minister of Petroleum Resources without confirmation by the Senate of the National Assembly.”

He said as a legal practitioner with 40 years experience and having checked the constitution, he is convinced that Buhari could not legally hold the office of the Minister of Petroleum Resources and prayed the court to sack him.

In a 14-paragraph affidavit, which he personally deposed to in support of his suit, Agbakoba explained that the lawsuit was informed by the recent management crisis between the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, and the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Kaikanti Baru.

The respondent in the suit is the Attorney General of the Federation.

The court is yet to fix any date for hearing.