A Supreme Court of the state of Lagos has rejected a lawsuit filed by the former governor of Lagos, Akinwunmi Ambode, in search of an order to
deter the State House of Assembly from investigating his term as governor.
The Assembly in 2019 formed a commission to investigate the administration of Ambode, in particular to investigate the purchase of 820 buses that they claimed had not been done with the approval of the legislators.
The former governor approached the court to stop the probe.
In the context of the Thursday request, Justice Yetunde Adesanya ruled that the court did not have the jurisdiction to prevent the legislators from continuing with the probe. The judge ruled that the ad hoc commission set up to investigate Ambode was a commission of inquiry and not an indictment.
“The claimant (Ambode) has not been charged. An invitation from a public authority cannot in any event cause a violation of the claimant's fundamental rights. I hereby find that the claimant's appeal is an invitation to the court to paralyze the legal exercise of the legal power of the Lagos State House of Assembly under sections 128 and 129 of the 1999 Constitution.
That is not the task of the court, and no court must accept such an invitation. The claimant's case is hereby crossed out, "according to the judge.
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