Those who are asking Mr. Femi Falana to limit himself to his law have not carefully read his statement on the removal of fuel subsidy. In justifying the subsidy removal the petroleum Minister/GMD of NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu claimed that the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) took the decision to fix the new pump price of petrol at N145 per litre.
Mr. Falana has argued that the decision of PPPRA is ultra vires and illegal on the ground that the body is illegally constituted. Since there are 26 members of the PPPRA Board the human rights lawyer has challenged the unilateral decision of the Executive Secretary of the regulatory agency to fix the new fuel price.Since Dr. Kachikwu is also a lawyer let him defend the illegality alleged by Mr. Falana.
Furthermore, in challenging the legal validity of the decision to deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry Mr. Falana cited the case of Bamidele Aturu v Attorney-General of the Federation decided by the Federal High Court. According to Mr. Falana the court declared that the deregulate policy of the federal government is illegal and unconstitutional. Since an appellate court has not set aside the judgment the federal government is bound to comply with it.
Therefore, those who are asking Mr. Falana to leave the anti people's economic policies of the Buhari administration to economists are unfair to him. Having faulted the deregulation policy on the basis of law and facts Mr. Falana deserves commendation and not abuse for drawing our attention to the legal dimension of the illegal fuel increase. This is what the Rule of Law is all about.
Tope Alase.