Adamu Bulkachuwa, former senator representing Bauchi north senatorial district, has approached and sought the Federal High Court in Abuja to restrict the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) from investigating and arresting him.
Recall that the senator had during the valedictory session of the 9th Senate, publicly confessed to having influenced decisions of his wife, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, as Appeal Court judge to favour his colleagues in the Senate.
The confession however ignited widespread controversy amongst lovers of democracy.
In the wake of the outrage that trailed the revelation, the Nigerian Bar Association called on the police and the ICPC to investigate the senator.
In line with its mandate to investigate corrupt practices, ICPC invited the senator for questioning.
Following the invite, Bulkachuwa, through his lawyer, Donald Ajibowu, wrote the agency to reschedule his appearance to 6 July, owing to ill-health.
However, three days ahead of the rescheduled date, Bulkachuwa filed a suit urging the court to bar the agency from investigating him.
He listed the Federation’s Attorney General, the National Assembly Clerk, the State Security Service (SSS), the ICPC, and Nigeria Police Force as defendants.
In the suit filed on July 3rd, he sought a “judicial interpretation of Section 1 of the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act 2017, which confers immunity on him from any civil or criminal litigation in respect of any utterance he makes on the floor of the Senate in his capacity as a serving Senator.”
Bulkachuwa prayed the court to declare his invitation as “illegal, arbitrary, oppressive, unconstitutional and a gross violation and a likelihood of continuous infraction of the applicant’s fundamental human right as guaranteed by Sections 34, 35, 36, 37, 41 and 46 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).”
