Lagos-based lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, says Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo lacks the constitutional power to waive his immunity.
Effiong said this in a statement while reacting to Osinbajo’s vow to waive his constitutional immunity to pave the way for the “most robust adjudication” over an allegation that he took ₦90bn from the Federal Inland Revenue Service to fund the 2019 general elections.
The lawyer said the Supreme Court had ruled in the matter of Bola Tinubu vs I.M.B Securities Plc that a person holding any of the executive offices that has immunity cannot waive it.
He said, “Based on the extant constitutional regime, the Vice-President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, cannot waive his immunity. The Supreme Court decided in 2001 in the case of Tinubu v. I. M. B. Securities Plc that the constitutional immunity under Section 308 of the constitution cannot be waived by the persons to whom the provision is meant to protect.