Does the Federal Government have the power to institute a probe panel or not?
The Plateau State government is absolutely justified and the Federal government knows it has no legal authority to do that. The power to set up a judicial commission of enquiry is not in the Constitution. It is not in the exclusive legislative list, which is where the Federal government draws its powers from. It is in the residual list, which is where the state government draws its powers from. It is a state matter and this issue has already been trashed out. We had the case of Babangida where the Supreme Court held exactly the same thing that the Federal government does not have powers to set up a judicial commission and therefore that Obasanjo commission, Oputal panel, was null and void. I don’t know why the present Attorney-General is allowing the Federal government to go through this sort of thing again and they may end up being humiliated in court; they (Federal government) don’t have the power, it’s a state matter. Let’s look at the proposed review of the 1999 Constitution. The F
