COVID-19: Buhari Has Legal Backing to Issue Restrictions – Osinbajo

COVID-19: Buhari Has Legal Backing to Issue Restrictions – Osinbajo

POLITICS DIGEST – Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), has cleared doubts about the legality of President Muhammadu Buhari’s restriction order in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, Lagos and Ogun States.

The Vice President, during an interaction on Google Hangout programme in Abuja on Monday, the step by step President, bedsides being proactive, was actually backed by law.

The Vice President spoke during an event organized by HACK COVID-19 Call Centre, a private sector initiative supporting Nigeria’s battle against the COVID-19 Pandemic.

According to the Vice President, in a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Mr Laolu Akande, the President’s restriction order got its legal root in the Quarantine Act of 1926.

“Regarding the legality of the shutdowns announced by the President yesterday, -Sunday-I think it is entirely legal. These steps are proactive, very relevant, important and backed by law.

“I am not so sure some of the people who have commented on the issue have come across the Quarantine Act. There is a Quarantine Act of 1926, it’s been published in all of the Laws of Nigeria, every edition of the Laws of Nigeria, it is there”, he explained.

Referring specifically to the part of the legislation that empowers the President to order movement restrictions in any part the country, Prof. Osinbajo said, “what the Act does is that it allows the President to designate any local area, any part of the country, as a place that may be infected or under the threat of a communicable disease, and he can then make regulations of any kind.

“For instance, he can say, people should not go out; no public gatherings etc. So, it is a regulation that gives the President powers and these powers come from the National Assembly because, of course, it is an act of the National Assembly”, he said.

The Vice President explained that by virtue of the constitutional rules, the 1926 Act is deemed to be an Act of the National Assembly.

“So, the President has extensive powers under the Quarantine Act of 1926. Also, Governors have extensive powers under the same Quarantine Act.”

Prof. Osinbajo urged all interested individuals and groups to personally go through the legislation in order to understand the provisions therein, noting that “it is barely a one page legislation, so it is not particularly difficult to find the relevant provisions and it is not particularly difficult to read, very straightforward. So, the President has all the powers.”

Speaking further about the legal precedent for the President’s ‘no movement order’, Prof. Osinbajo said “many of us are not familiar with the Influenza pandemic that killed several millions around the world in 1918. At that time regulations were made here, very similar to what we have today, although that was under the colonial authorities.

The Influenza pandemic was referred to as the Spanish Flu and it killed thousands in Nigeria and millions across the world then.

“They also banned public gatherings, banned gatherings in places of worship then. So, there is even good historical precedence for some of what we are doing today”, he said.

It would be recalled that some legal experts had, immediately after President Buhari ordered the restriction as part of the measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country, come out to raise red flags, arguing that he had no such powers.

However, on Monday evening, the President signed the COVID-19 Regulations 2020 to formalise the legal aspect of government’s decisions and measures to protect Nigerians against the pandemic.

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and former Kogi West Senator, Dino Melaye were recently reported to have challenged the Buhari’s decision to lockdown Lagos and Ogun state and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja as one of the measures to contain COVID-19 in the country.