In what appears to be a sharp division, the Senate accused the House of Representatives of lacking the powers to summon the President.
Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege who spoke for the Senate in an interview on Wednesday in Abuja condemned the action if the Rep Members saying the Senate does not believe that the President should honour the invitation.
According to him, “we have three equal arms of government. The framers of our constitution did not envisage that one arm of government will be summoning the head another co- equal arm of government to come and offer explanation on the floor.”
He reminded members of the House of Representatives of the need to respect the principle of separation of powers as captured in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“It is not envisaged by the framers of the constitution that a day will come where the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who heads the executive arm would be asked to come and testify in the House of Representatives or the Senate,” he added.
Omo – Agege, said, “I am a constitutionalist. I believe that we are operating a presidential system of government. I believe in the concept of the separation of power.
For proper understanding, he asked the House to understudy the American system from which Nigeria built her Presidential political system.
The Deputy Senate President further stressed that the President could claim executive privilege at any time any of such invitation is extended.
The Presidency has earlier announced that President Muhammadu Buhari would honour the invitation by the House of Representatives at 10am on Thursday, December 10, 2020.