Security Agents Storm Atiku's Homes, Cart Away Official Vehicles AC, Veepee Condemn Invasion Of His Homes FROM MADU ONUORAH (ABUJA) AND IDOWU AJANAKU (LAGOS) IN line with the entreaty of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday declared the Office of the Vice President vacant, thus setting off an imminent constitutional crisis.
The President stated that a replacement would soon be announced to fill the nation's number two position. This would be after consultations "with relevant bodies and stakeholders" in the country.
Also, yesterday, security officials from the State House, allegedly acting on instructions of the President, swooped on the official residences of Atiku Abubakar in Abuja and Lagos to remove all official vehicles attached to the Vice President.
Atiku, who is currently spending his annual leave with his family in the United States of America, was reportedly not formally informed before his official residences were invaded.
But Vice President Atiku Abubakar described the invasion of his homes in Abuja and Lagos as a crude assault and called on all Nigerians and the National Assembly in particular to call Obasanjo to order and sanction him accordingly.
His campaign organisation said as at press time yesterday, it was still unknown what other items had been carted away from the two houses.
"Atiku's family resident in both houses have been left traumatised by this naked power show and brazen assault on the nation's number two citizen whose abode under the Nigerian Constitution cannot be violated.
"Distraught family members made frantic efforts to reach the Vice President yesterday as aides and political associates rallied to their rescue," the organisation said.
According to the Atiku Campaign Organisation, "the President is pushing the country to the edge and everyone should be concerned. This country is too fragile to survive any political upheaval that could arise from this reckless display of naked power and failure to abide by the provisions of the Constitution."
Similarly, the Action Congress (AC) at the weekend, declared as "unconstitutional, null and void" the PDP's declaration that the seat of the Vice President has become vacant because he dumped the ruling party.
The AC continued "Nowhere in the Constitution is it stated that a political party can declare vacant the seat of a sitting Vice President for whatever reasons."
The party said the Vice President, as a true democrat and a strong believer in the rule of law, has gone to court to enforce his fundamental right of free association, as enshrined in the Constitution.
"We expect that even in their current abyss of lawlessness, desperation and confusion, the so-called ruling party will not take any action in breach of that legal challenge," AC said.
The party slammed the PDP leaders for deliberately taking actions that could overheat the polity, saying, "it is part of their strategy to ensure that the 2007 elections will not hold."
However, following the President's position yesterday, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has lost all privileges attached to the Office of the Vice President, including the loss of his security and other aides.
The Vice President principally has two major security details - the Aide de Camp, who is posted from the Nigerian Police Force and his Chief Security Officer, who is posted from the Department of State Security.
The duo have, at their command, about 200 security aides, who guard the Vice President's official and private home; protect him and his immediate family and engage in general security jobs.
The vehicles driven away from official residences of the VP in Lagos and Abuja in the early hours of yesterday by security operatives include Mercedes Benz X-class painted in black colour. The security agents also withdrew the same type of official vehicle in his Lagos residence.
The Vice President had been denied use of an official jet for his travel to the United States on a two-week vacation. He had to travel aboard British Airways.
Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Mallam Uba Sani, told journalists in Abuja yesterday that the President's decision followed Vice President Atiku's "abandonment of his official responsibilities, the party on which platform he came to power, the president as well as the country following his defection to another political party."
After a meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) last Friday in Abuja, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had announced the expulsion of Vice President Abubakar, declaring his seat vacant, and asking President Obasanjo to take steps to effect the filling of the declared vacancy.
The NEC, through the party National Publicity Secretary, John Odey, hinged its action on the Vice President's decision to run for the office of the President on the platform of the Action Congress (AC).
Sani said the President had taken steps to notify the National Assembly and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of his decision in this regard. He said the National Assembly is expected to deliberate on the matter on resumption from the current recess.
Giving reasons for the new twist in the nation's divided Presidency, Sani explained that Atiku had last week applied to President Obasanjo for, and received estacode to enable him proceed on his annual leave in the United States of America.
Instead, he ended up in Lagos the next day for the national convention of the Action Congress.
He said the AC nominated Atiku as its presidential flagbearer in next year's elections and that the Vice President not only accepted the offer, but went ahead to make scathing remarks about the party (PDP) on whose platform he rode to power.
Citing section 142(1) of the Constitution to buttress his point, Sani said that by defecting to another political party, the Vice President has raised constitutional questions, the most crucial of which was the basis for his continued holding of the office.
Section 142(1) states that: "In any election to which the foregoing provisions of the Part of this Chapter relates, a candidate for an election to the office of President shall not be deemed to be validly nominated unless he nominates another candidate as his associate from the same political party for his running for the office of President, who is to occupy the office of Vice-President and that candidate shall be deemed to have been duly elected to the office of the Vice-President if the candidate for an election to the office of President who nominated him as such associate is duly elected as President in accordance with the provision aforesaid."
Hence Sani said: "The effect of Atiku's declaration for another political party and consequent acceptance to run as a candidate of that party is the abandonment of the platform on which he was elected into power as well as a severance of his relationship with the President and the party.
"The net implication is that, at the moment, he lacks a platform that can allow him to continue to occupy that office, and the office is now deemed vacant. This satisfies the provision in Section 146(3)(C) to the effect that the vice president's seat can become vacant 'for any other reason.'"
That subsection (3) states that: "Where the office of the Vive-President becomes vacant- (c) for any other reason, the President shall nominate and, with the approval of each House of the national Assembly, appoint a new Vice President."
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