The Nation Newspaper

Tag: innocence

  • Age of innocence

    Age of innocence

    It seems odd to speak of the beginning of an old or modern country in the same sentence with the concept of innocence. A child knows little because he is too little to know. But countries and societies like Nigeria were clear-eyed at birth.

    United States first beat its chest with rhetoric before rumbling into war. Greece muscled itself into being. The Sokoto Caliphate invoked Allah in a jihad of blood and sword. Bismark coalesced troops to build an army with a state. Yet, there is a sense in which a new state is innocent. Not in the sense of a new-born child who screams every other eye awake at 3:17 am, but in the sense of a new-born people, cobbled together to pursue a future that enchants and mystifies simultaneously.

    In justifying why he wrote Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe urged us to return to when the rain started to beat us. Perhaps a good way to look at the convulsion around the country over restructuring. In the melee of voices, few have examined why the centre has become so juicy.

    At independence, the centre was little. The regions boomed. Chief Obafemi Awolowo turned the western region into a model of governance. The east emulated. The north rollicked in its agrarian riches. The regions relished their relative autonomy. Things fell apart later. As columnist Kunle Abimbola noted, the national question took centre stage when IBB suffocated June 12.

    But it was because the Southwest saw it as the inflexion mark signifying that the Yorubas were seen as second fiddle. We have to go a little back in time to understand this. The Richards and Macpherson Constitutions helped with setting the stage for a federal state, so the regions cared for themselves. The centre held because it attracted only a few. More importantly, the centre was perceived as belonging to all.

    Hence after he was done with his work in the Western Region, Awo headed for the centre to run for prime minister. Also by mid-1960’s, the Igbos dominated the civil service. While the Middle Belt had a huge number in the army, the officer corps boasted an array of Igbo soldiers. No surprise that when the coup erupted in January 1966, Igbos headlined the actors.

    Irony that the Southwest is not impressed with the centre these days. So, it hails a return to regionalism. The Igbos who once puffed in the centre have rejuvenated Biafra drum beats. Why?

    It can be traced to a resource that belonged neither to the east or west: oil. When oil was discovered, the centre was not supposed to get more than 30 per cent of its proceeds. Fifty per cent belonged to the land owners, according to the law based on the Raisman report on derivation revenue.

    What followed was a caliphate coup of oil. With the military takeover, the proceeds came down to 1.5 percent to the oil-bearing areas until Abacha made it 13 per cent. We must blame the regions, East and West, for kowtowing to the greed of oil and abandoning their economic war chests: cocoa in the West, and palm produce in the East and Midwest, and rubber in the Mid-west. So greasy was the North with oil that it slipped out of the groundnut pyramid. If all decided in their indulgence to follow oil, the Northwest decided it was going to dole it out. It had the power of the army to fulfil this destiny. Lewis Obi called it the Caliphate army in the June 12 era.

    In all of this, the minorities counted for almost nothing. It was a great tragedy that canvassers for justice – East and West – also saw the minorities in the Niger Delta as feeding bottles.

    We must understand that the most egregious sin happened when former President OlusegunObasanjo, in his roguish elegance, schemed a minority to the top. Goodluck Jonathan squashed the opportunity. The same minorities and the Southeast missed the opportunity to set the template for a fairer country. Rather, their elites waxed into carpet baggers and continued where the majorities left off. When Jonathan fell, the South-south and Southeast now began to complain about neglect. We must situate in this hypocrisy the rise of an opportunist bumpkin like Nnamdi Kanu.

    So, the centre is oil, and the Northwest elite became the North’s worst. They took the centre by force. The frustration of the East, West and minorities in the centre revved up the decibel of clamour.

    We can see that the Northwest elite is the only region that resists restructuring. The voices of IBB and Lamido Sanusi, who support a structural rethink, are outliers. If we want restructuring, we must compel the Northwest to submit. In his new book: Nigeria: The Restructuring Controversy, former IGP Mike Okiro gathers the main voices on the subject. The Northwest distinguishes itself with an eloquent silence. Unless we hold the Northwest to account, the centre will not hold for all.

    If oil spelt poor governance, ditto the national question. Pre-oil was our age of innocence on both. We are now looking back with anger. Philosopher Albert Camus characterised it thus: “every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.”

    But it is a nostalgia with prejudice. Biafra does not trust Oduduwa does not trust Saifawa, etc. Paul Unongo laments that Awo gave no ear to his plea to create the Middle Belt region during the constitutional conference for independence because he had secured the West. Awo is not around to respond. We are still a babel and until a united front compels the Northwest elite, the clamour may become impotent.

    If we cannot get back our innocence, at least we can work on our prejudices. As the French philosopher Denis Diderot noted, “one makes up for the loss of one’s innocence with the loss of one’s prejudices.” We can’t all lose our prejudices, but we should chasten them to help us work together for a fairer union.

  • Chibok girls, ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’

    WELCOME back home, Chibok girls. I wonder if we can call them girls any longer. In about three years of captivity inside a forest ruled by Boko Haram’s rag tag army, they have gone through such devastating experiences as would make a woman of any girl. Pure as lily and fresh as daisy, 276 of them were kidnapped on 14 April, 2014 from boarding school by gunmen in the dead of the night, and driven straight into the heart of a sprawling forest called Sambisa. There, all sorts of things imaginable and unimaginable would happen. In the rain seasons of those years, I often wondered as a parent what could be happening to these girls. Whenever lightening and thunder struck, I travelled in spirit from the comfort of my house and bed to the forest. I imagined many of them lying on rotten foliage, filled with the fear of snakes and other dangerous animals and insects. Some could be housed in mud huts or houses. They could be cold and hungry. Every moment, they would remember home, and cry. Worst still, a man dirty in mind and body would come for one. Quite naturally, a girl who had been brought up at home to clean her mouth everyday, who would not allow a boyfriend who was unkempt for only one day near her, would detest being forcibly taken by a dirty, savage-looking stranger. But, now, here she is, surrounded by fiendish men who have no respect for personal hygiene, each one seeing her as cheap game. We saw videos of some girls who did not agree that their bodies be violated and who paid for this by being buried alive, standing up, save for their heads which were stoned severely before, finally, they were beheaded! Many girls who thought it was better to be alive saw discretion as the better part of valour, and surrended their bodies to save their lives. In the process, many of the girls would have been gang raped, and would have become pregnant and even had one or two babies, to worsen matters, to men they cannot identify as the fathers of their children. When we contrast these experiences with the picture of the future unfurling before them only three years before now, these must be harrowing experiences. In this unfurling picture of the world, these girls had been looking forward to passing their University placement examinations, to studying in the University and becoming doctors, lawyers, economists or whatever, to getting married someday and having their own families and to living respectable lives as adults.

    A contrasting world confronted them in the forest. Their lives changed. Some would ask: WHY ME? What wrong have I committed to deserve all these? Does God exist? If He does, why would He allow this to happen? Genuinely, some must have lost confidence in Christianity, the religion of their parents,  and adopted Islam, the religion of their captors, if this would save their lives. Inside them, a storm would be raging. It would be a storm of two worlds in collision … the world of their dream and the world of their new reality. This storm reminds me of the titles of two poems we studied for literature in the Higher School Certificate (HSC) class of 1969-70 at Igbobi College in Lagos. It was titled: SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND OF EXPERIENCE. It came in two sections. The poet, WILLIAM BLAKE, produced and printed the book in two phases, beginning with 19 poems in 1789. These were titled: SONGS OF INNOCENCE and captured the joy of protected innocence of childhood in a falling and tormenting world of adulthood. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE came with 26 poems to form the second section of Blakes collection of poems and appeared in 1794. It shows how child innocence, peace and joy and praise is often shattered by that falling world of adults which impinges on childhood and becomes known to the child through experience. Sorrow and pain.

    Through SONGS OF EXPERIENCE Blake challenged some of the iniquities of his days which included racial discrimination, exploitation of child labour and child sufferance and negative, corrupt and repressive tendencies of the Church. He did not fail to also challenge other wrong doings of the society, especially in the political sector.

    Well, our Chibok girls, nay women, have been through it all. It is not surprising that some of them prefer to stay behind in Sambisa forest where they intend to spend the rest of their lives. It is possible they are depressed about what has befallen them and are ashamed to face the world. Nigeria is still a conservative society where almost everyone talks about everyone in negative terms. The President-elect of France, Emmanuel Jean-Michel Macron, married Brigitte Trogneux, 24 years his senior. She was his high school teacher in La Providence High School. She was 39 and he was 15 when they first met in her class. He proposed to her. His parents at first objected to the relationship by sending him to another school in Paris. He asked her to divorce her husband, and spoke to her three children that he wanted to marry their mother. Two of her children are older than Macron. But they all agreed he could marry their mother.

    I know that, in Nigeria, there are many old women who like to frolic with young men their son’s ages, and young men who do not mind fishing upstream. But, largely, this is done under cover. The same goes for grandpas and teenage girls. In Nigeria, Macron’s mother would fight the relationship on all fronts … including the village and market squares, family circles on both sides, and, even take voodoo sacrifices to road junctions in the nude in the dead of the night. So, what chance does a Sambisa forest Chibok woman have to start her life and feel free in Nigeria. This is a real Song of Experience.

    Today is not the day to ask questions about the rightness or wrongness of the fate which befell the Chibok girls. But, today, we may set the stage for that by recognising that God is perfect and that there cannot, therefore, be an accident in creation. If He is perfect and if His perfection permits of no accident, because an accident would be an index of imperfection, we must always look inwards, into our souls and spirits, for the cause and course of any event or experience, sweet or otherwise. We human beings have become spiritually short sighted in the sense that we limit our earthly existence to only one earth life. If we shift the points backwards, we may discover the origins of many of todays event, say, hundreds or thousands of years ago. It is, therefore not an accident when we meet and relate with people we may think we had never known or experience event we may think we do not deserve to experience.

    In the interim, we must recognise that the girls who have agreed to step out of Sambisa forest may be crumbled by the forces of society their new identity may attract to them. Afterall, many years after his marriage, the age difference between President-elect Macron and his wife continue to excite the French media.

    That is why I proposed elsewhere that these girls be sponsored by the government to go abroad on a rehabilitation programme of about five years after re-union with their families. This should cover cost of their education, for those who wish to further their studies or learn any trade. Some people say this is an unnecessary waste of scarce funds. I doubt if they would think so if their daughters are involved. I have no daughter but I feel their experience to the bone marrow. If the government bows to these hawks, can private Nigerians not sponsor this project?

    I imagine that a massive campaign can yield a harvest of about 500,000 Nigerians who, paying, say, N500 every month can muster N250 million for this project. The truth, unfortunately, is that the Nigerian society has become lame. It doesn’t fight for anything, anymore. In my days as a University student in the 1970s, students would have stormed the houses in which large sums of money have been stored away to the detriment of the economy. Maybe, the style of society has changed from physical activism to fighting in words and thought forms. Maybe not. My neighbour who lives in England says poor people in the United Kingdom always freed themselves from the yoke of the rich through activism. For example, a law was passed in 1951 (the footh path law) which limits the size of land the rich can acquire in certain areas. The rich had become so rich there was hardly any limit to their reach in society. For example, one may acquire such vast hectrages of land that the poor had no short cuts routes from one part of a neighbourhood to another. Geometry teaches that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. Imagine a triangle with points A, B and C with median landmarks between A and B at AB, and A and C at AC.

    In pre-footh path law days, a man walking from point AB to point AC would have to walk from point AB to A and from A to AC or from AB to B and B to C and then C to AC. But with the footh path law, owners of large tracts of land became legally obliged to create footh paths in large tracts such that pedestrians could cut short their Israelite’s Journey with, for example, straight line movement from AB to AC.

    In our midst, Chibok girls may become depressed, apathetic, sorrowful, angry, fearful, recluses and a wasted people. They, like their parents, guardians and friends, should be aware of the SONGS OF EXPERIENCE the society will be singing all around them, and kit themselves up for battle. They will need psychologists to firm up their minds, and nutrition to make their brains and nerves impregnable by pressure from the SONGS OF EXPERIENCE.

     

    Depression

    If, inwardly, one is unable to equalise the pressure of intruding forces and repel them, depression of the soul or spirit which many people call the mind may occur. And depression may lead to a host of other problems. Apathy is one of them. It is linked to insufficiency of a neurotransmitter in the brain called DOPAMINE which can be obtained from food sources such as Noni juice or food supplements such as MOOD SUPPORT or BEHAVIOUR BALANCE. Dopamine helps us to be happy, active, forward looking and stable.  As the spirit is repressed in a deficiency state of dopamine, it feels like doing nothing. It is like losing interest not only in the surroundings but in life and living. The challenged person relapses into obsessive eating and sleep. Obsessive eating comes from damage to or alteration of the chemistry of cells in the brain which advise us that our system is full of food, and we do not need to pump more food into it. This situation may arise from the infusion of negative energy into the cells. Depression and apathy lead to sorrow, hate, irritability, anger and the likes of them. These emotions, generated in the spirit, link up to power centers of their kinds in the world unseen and unfelt with the five physical senses. Having linked up, the challenged person becomes like an electrical appliance connected to the mains, imbued, in the case of a human being, with negative energy. Negative energy chases away or obstructs the inflow of positive energy. Negative energy represses the immune system, cellular functions and health and supports proliferation of germs. Thus, depression and apathy may cause hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, conditions in which the thyroid gland underfunctions or overworks. Underfunctioning leads to sleepiness, indigestion, weight gains, low blood pressure, goitre and about 200 diseases linked with hypothyroidism, including chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, a condition of pain in the muscles, tendons, bone and surrounding tissues. Hyperthyroidism, on the other hand, literally burns up the body, triggering such conditions as hyperactivity, rapid heart beats (tachycardia) or palpitations, leaness, excessive sweating under high-tension metabolism and even bulgy eyeballs (Graves disease).

    Obsessive eating and weight gains can be checked with high fibre foods. I have observed it well checked with herbs, such as Garcinia cambogia. Traditionally, this fruit is used to make meals more filling, reduce desire to over-eat and block fats being made in the body. One tablet of this fruit taken one to three times daily help to reduce food intake to about once or twice a day. With this goes the possibility of checking high blood cholesterol and fatty liver. This is a dangerous condition in which the liver is filled with fats that it can hardly function well. Fats easily become rotten in the body in the absence of antioxidants active in the fat medium. Fats which rot in the liver may predispose it to infections, hardening (cirrhosis) and even cancer. There are many other fat burners available to us. Some of these are Lecithin, Choline and Inositol, Apple cider vinegar, Garlic et.c.

    In some depressed people, sleep can become an issue. They may lack melatonin, the neuro-transmitter the brain converts to Serotonin, which gets us to sleep. Melatonin supplementation in the diet may not help people who have enough of it but may not be able to convert it to serotonin. Every insomniac has to find out the cause of his or her condition and address it. Calcium and Magnesium help some cases. So do Lecithin, Omega-3 oil (DHA), GABA and herbs such as vervain, valerian root, hops, lettuce et.c.

    Apathy is the nut to crack in depression. The victim is like a seed planted in the soil which fails to grow. The seed kernel is blessed with nutrients.  In the soil, friction of all sorts is meant to make it break through its protective coats, feed itself from its food reserve, grow roots to anchor itself in the soil, and find food, when the food reserve is exhausted, push pebbles, and soil aside and rise above the soil. This process is interesting. It should make us wonder about the concept of gravity. Science believes it is a force in the middle of the earth which pulls us down, preventing us from flying off into space. A counter opinion is that there is a force above which pushes everything down to its level of homogeneity. Thus, a seed that does not wish to grow becomes resident in the soil and decays there. That which expresses longing to live is helped up, to sprout, flower, fruit and fulfil the purpose of its existence. Man is like the seed. His kernel is the human spirit which is resident in the physical human body. The spirit is endowed with abilities which are meant to sprout flower and fruit so that the spirit can fulfil the purpose of its existence. If the spirit strives to live, it is helped upwards to regions of Life commensurate with the level or nature of its value or inner worth. That is why it is said that heaven helps those who help themselves. In apathy, the spirit is walled up, becomes gradually cold and lifeless, degenerates and rapidly approaches the end of its earth-life. If it is not helped, its blood radiations may so weaken that it may be possessed by earth-bound disembodied souls, often the source of auto-suggestions and suicide thoughts.

    This should not be the fate of Chibok girls. They remind me of the pathetic situation of two Moroccan girls in the 1970s or 80s. They were born in England and were British citizens. There parents did not want them to marry outside Morocco. So, they tricked their daughters home on a false holiday to Morocco. The girls were happy to know their father land and to meet their relations. Their parents disappeared overnight to England, after taken away from them their British passport. The local Chief came for them and handed them over to husbands agreed with their parents. It took about three years for British reporter searching for British citizens abducted in Morocco to discover these girls in a mountain range settlement. An Anglo-Moroccan diplomatic row broke out. Morocco agreed to release the girls but insisted on keeping their children, two on each side who were Moroccans. The girls could not abandon their children in Morocco and stuck to their captivity and damage dream. It is unlikely that Chibok girls will give up their children who would grow up someday also stigmatised like their mothers. We can all help in thought and deed to free the freed Chibok girls from the yolk of apathy.

  • I ’ll prove my innocence, says ex-NNPC GMD

    I ’ll prove my innocence, says ex-NNPC GMD

    Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) ex-Group Managing Director Andrew Yakubu has said he will prove his innocence over allegation of false declaration of assets, even though the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has not charged him with any offence.
    Yakubu accused the EFCC of denying him access to medical attention, which he said he desperately needed.
    The former NNPC boss is being detained by the EFCC, following an alleged recovery of $9,772,800 and £74,000 cash from him, which he claimed was a gift.
    A Federal High Court has directed that Yakubu, who has been transferred from EFCC’s facility in Kano to Abuja, forfeit the money to the government.
    In a statement issued in Abuja, counsel to Yakubu, Ahmed Raji (SAN), said “within this time also, our client has been denied access to adequate medical attention which he desperately needs”.
    Raji said even though his client voluntarily presented himself to the anti-graft agency, he has not been charged with any crime either by the EFCC or any agency of government.
    The lawyer said the statement became necessary in view of media report alleging that his client is facing charges for under-declaration of assets and illegal transactions.
    He said: “Within this time, no formal charges has been brought against our client by the EFCC or any other government establishment for any offence whatsoever as widely spread in media reports.
    “Our client has been detained by the EFCC for more than a month since he voluntarily presented himself to them at their invitation and has fully cooperated with investigations.”
    He stressed that his client was determined to prove his innocence and willingness to clear his name in due course.

  • Intriguing innocence

    •Now that Kano justice ministry has withdrawn case against Agbahime’s suspected killers, who killed the woman?

    It is curious that the Kano State Ministry of Justice ordered the release of five murder suspects standing trial for allegedly killing 74-year-old Mrs. Bridget Agbahime, a Christian of Igbo origin, in a Kano market in June after accusing her of blasphemy. The alleged killers, Dauda Ahmed, Abdulmumeen Mustafa, Zubairu Abubakar, Abdullahi Abubakar and Musa Abdullahi, had been arraigned before a chief magistrate’s court on a four-count charge.

    The trial took a strange turn and was terminated following the advice of the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Kano State Ministry of Justice. The state prosecution counsel, Rabiu Yusuf, who informed the court that the state was withdrawing the matter, was quoted as saying:  ”We received the case diary from the police on June 8, and having gone through it, the attorney- general of Kano State evaluated the facts in accordance with sections 130 and 150 of the criminal procedure code. The legal advice presented to the court, dated June 24, states that there is no case to answer, as the suspects are all innocent and orders the court to discharge all the accused persons.”

    It is intriguing that the accused were declared innocent by the DPP’s office when the trial was supposed to establish their innocence or guilt. It is unclear how the claimed innocence of the accused was established by the DPP’s office outside their trial.

    The background to this alarming development is noteworthy for the accusatory details. A report said: “The prosecution told the court that, the first accused person, Dauda Ahmed, had a brawl with the deceased, adding that Dauda seized the late woman and rained slaps on her before proceeding to shout Allahu Akbar, with which he allegedly recruited the other offenders. The charge sheet further alleged that the shout by the first accused attracted a huge crowd, who after learning that late Bridget had blasphemed the prophet, went ahead to strike the accused woman with clubs and various types of dangerous weapons, which it claimed led to her death. The charge sheet also noted that one Salawihu, Ibrahim, Dini, Isiaku, Mallam Sani, Sufiyanu, Yunusa and Mallam Umar, all at large, were part of the mob that carried out the dastardly act.”

    Now that the five suspects charged to court have been discharged based on the said legal advice, those suspects said to be at large may also have no case to answer. So the question is: Who will answer for the barbaric murder of Citizen Agbahime? Without question, there was a killing, and there must have been killers.

    Surely, it cannot be enough to simply declare the accused guiltless without further action towards unravelling the identities of those who killed the woman. This is why it is unsurprising that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is demanding justice in this matter. Indeed, all persons of conscience should demand that the murderers in this case be apprehended and prosecuted.

    A statement by CAN’s Director, Legal and Public Affairs, Kwamkur Samuel, described the development as “a highly provocative and insulting act.”  It added: “The association condemns the continuous act of killing of innocent Nigerians under the pretext of blasphemy.” More disturbing is the association’s observation: “As it stands today, there is no single prosecution record of any criminal who killed under the pretext of blasphemy in Nigeria despite the number of victims and incontrovertible facts showing that those killings were done in daylight and mostly by persons who live within the communities where these heinous crimes were committed.” A recent case in point is the murder of a Christian female preacher in Abuja who was allegedly killed by Muslims intolerant of her evangelism.

    The failure of law enforcement regarding these instances of murderous criminality amounts to licensing impunity; and it could trigger an undesirable backlash from those who have lost faith in the capacity of the state to ensure justice. This is why correct action is urgently needed.

  • Alleged forgery: Ekweremadu restates innocence

    Alleged forgery: Ekweremadu restates innocence

    Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu has reinstated his innocence in the alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Rules filed against him by the Federal Government.

    He said his only offence was becoming Senate Deputy President against the wishes of the “powers that be”.

    A statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Uche Anichukwu, said Ekweremadu spoke yesterday when members of Enugu State Economic Advisory Committee visited him at his Enugu home.

    The statement said then Deputy Senate President insisted that his “hands were clean”.

    It said Ekweremadu, who is also a member of the high-powered Economic Advisory Committee set up by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi at the inception of his administration, reiterated his commitment to the principles of the separation of power, independence of the Legislature and growth of the nation’s democracy.

    He said: “I am indeed humbled by your solidarity. As they say, the true test of a man is not where he stands in the time of comfort; it is where he stands when there is a crisis. Many people may not take this step of faith because of the situation we found ourselves in the country. Some may be afraid of their liberty and afraid of any reprisal. But you have stepped out to come and show solidarity and ask questions in a matter concerning one of your sons.

    “Let me start by reinstating my innocence; that I committed no offence or forged any documents. None of the accused persons, to the best of my knowledge, committed any offence, let alone forged any document. Let me also say that no senator accused me, the President of the Senate or the other people of committing any offence. No senator or bureaucrat accused us of forging any document.”

  • EFCC to Metuh: prove your innocence

    EFCC to Metuh: prove your innocence

    •’PDP spokesman’s allegations against Justice Abang baseless’

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has urged the spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, to disprove the allegation of fraud and money laundering against him rather than seeking to malign the judge with the aim of scuttling his trial.

    The EFCC argued that Metuh’s unsubstantiated allegation of bias against Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, and his claim that they (Metuh and Justice Abang) were mates at the Law School do not constitute a sufficient ground to  ask the judge to quit the trial .

    EFCC is prosecuting Metuh and Destra Investment Limited on a seven-count charge of fraud and money laundering in relation to the N400 million he allegedly received unlawfully from ex-National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki and the $2 million he allegedly got as gift at the last PDP national convention where ex-President Goodluck Jonathan was adopted as the party’s sole candidate for the last election.

    They have been on trial in Justice Abang’s court since January 15 till the prosecution closed its case after calling eight witnesses, who were cross-examined by defence lawyers.

    When they were to begin their defence, Metuh and his company, represented by a team led by Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), made a no-case submission, which the judge, on March 9, dismissed on the grounds that the prosecution made a case against them, which required them to enter a defence.

    The EFCC, in its counter affidavit against their  motion for the judge to quit and another for indefinite adjournment until the determination of their application at the Court of Appeal for a stay of proceedings at the Federal High Court, argued that Metuh and his company were trying to scuttle the trial.

    Lead prosecution lawyer Sylvanus Tahir noted, in his written submission to the counter affidavit, that the allegations of bias and other claims by Metuh and Detra were intended to frustrate the trial as they had submitted to the court’s jurisdiction even when Metuh knew he was the judge’s schoolmate.

    “All manner of allegations, as stated by the defendants, were cooked up by them just to justify frustrating the stalling of proceedings. We submit that the antics and gimmicks deployed by the defendants are nothing but mere afterthought and pure blackmail aimed at intimidating the court to drop the case in the guise or pretext of bias by the judge.

    “The allegations of bias levelled by the defendants against the court relate merely to the exercise of judicial powers by the court, without any evidence of facts or circumstances that suggest that the court did, in fact, favour one side unfairly,” Tahiir said.

    On Metuh’s claim that he was the judge’s school mate, Tahir argued that by virtue of the oath of office subscribed to by a judicial officer, a judge handling a case was only required to administer justice without fear or favour, irrespective of parties involved.

    “In the circumstances of this case, even if the judex and the 1st defendant (Metuh) were classmates, one would have thought that relationship would have given more concern to the prosecution than the defence for obvious reasons. The prosecution would have been the one to entertain fear that the court may favour its classmate,” he said.

    In response to Metuh’s allegation that there had been a “frosty relationship” between him and the judge , Tahir argued that Metuh’s refusal to duel on what constituted the supposed “frosty relationship” amounted to mere allegation without substance.

    “The 1st defendant suddenly woke up when it is time to open his defence to remember an alleged ‘frosty relationship’ that had existed over the years. This is blackmail of unprecedented proportion, which cannot be a ground to disqualify his lordship (the judge),” he said.

    Tahir also faulted Metuh’s claim that the judge frustrated his appeal by allegedly refusing to release records of proceedings, noting that the only decision of the judge, which Metuh appealed against was that given on March 9 and for which the judge released to him, a type-written copy of the proceedings on March 17.

    “Other tendentious and mundane allegations of bias remain unsubstantiated and unproven. Even the normal practice of a litigant (either in civil or criminal cases) standing either in the dock or witness box until his counsel draws the attention of the judex, with an oral request for the litigant to sit down, which is acceded to by the court, has become an issue of bias.

    “Another germane issue on the allegation of bias is that the test of real likelihood of bias is that of a reasonable man, not that of a man, who has made up his mind to pull down the institution of justice in a desperate bid to undermine the judicial process and get off the hook by all means,” Tahir said.

    The prosecution lawyer urged the court to refuse Metuh’s application for indefinite adjournment pending the Court of Appeal’s determination of his (Metuh’s) motion for a stay of proceedings in relation to the trial.

    Tahir faulted the application, citing sections 396(3) & (5) and 306 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, and Section 19 (2) and 40 of EFCC Act. He argued that the defendants, knowing that their application for indefinite adjournment was unknown to law, failed to “state the particular rules of court under which the application for adjournment was brought.

    “The point needs to be stressed that this is a criminal proceeding. The applicants did not bring their application for adjournment under any relevant section of the ACJA, 2015 to enable the court grant the application.

    “The motion, brought pursuant to Section 6 (6) of the Constitution, is hopelessly incompetent and should be dismissed without much ado,” Tahir said.

    Justice Abang is expected to entertain parties’ arguments on all applications by Metuh and his company on April 8, following which it would be determined whether the defence would be accorded the last opportunity to open its case or the judge to quit, for proceedings to commence afresh before a new judge.

  • Protecting the girl-child’s innocence

    In the prime of their youthful elegance, in the age of experimentation and curiosity, they are carefully watched by predators and protectors alike. The battle for the soul of the Nigerian girl child is a keen contest of trust, deception and wisdom. But if the predatory side wins, dreams will be shattered; their naive ignorance would be exposed to the vagaries of an uncertain future.

    The Nigerian girl child is a hunted breed, an endangered species whose story will either be told with a joyful glee of triumph or a somber reflection of defeat. Parents, guardians or anyone to whose care a child is entrusted is likened to be a protector while anyone who would exploit the innocence and naivety of the girl child is a predator.

    Recently, I was confronted with a disheartening scene on my visit to a friend whose cousin was sexually assaulted by an older uncle that came on a visit. The thirteen year old girl was devastated by the incident. As if to set lid on a boiling cauldron, she was sternly reprimanded by her guardians for being “loose.” I was surprised by their actions because I expected the guardian to deal decisively with the so called uncle who threw caution to the wind. But instead what he received was likened to a tap on the shoulder as they vented their anger on the girl and blamed her for an act orchestrated by a supposed uncle. But where should the blame really lie? Should it rest with the uncle who defiled the young girl old enough to be his daughter, and exposed her to the hubris of womanhood because he could not control his dirty passions? Or was it the guardian who chose to be selectively ignorant to the sensitivity of their ward by leaving her to the hands of a pedophile?

    The questions are many. Should we put the blame at the feet of the girl sexually exploited at the age of innocence? Even if she may not be innocent, the predator has had her hormones dangerously spiked. No matter how enviable and glorious a future we envisage for our young girls, it amounts to daydreaming if we cannot match words with action to stamp out this evil from our midst.

    But the wait for the resolve to rescue our girls seems to be afar. Our lawmakers in the upper legislative chambers that should act as protectors of the right of the girl child seem to have bungled that role.  The arms of the law have been weakened to allow paltry fines for offenders and soft-landing for perverts who sometimes go scot-free. In the ensuing search for help for the girl child, how many have we lost to prostitution, drug abuse, child marriage and the psychological manacles of depression and low self-esteem after being molested at the tender age of innocence?

    John Walcott Adams echoed that: “every day is a new beginning when you can make a fresh start.” These words should fuel the resolve of everyone that the battle against this scourge will be won if the plight of the home is taken into consideration; that every parent or guardian makes it a point of duty, irrespective of their jobs and keep their eyes on their children and wards and seize them from the indoctrination of unwholesome television contents propagated by the media. These mediums have weakened the moral fibre and value quotient of our children, making them susceptible to the wild escapades of the age. We will have to use biblical principles to raise them in the fear of God, teaching them to be contended with whatever they have since this will go a long way in building a healthy sense of self-worth. And since their predators use gifts and pretentious words of care mostly to lure these unsuspecting teenagers into their traps, a family system imbued with love and care protects these children from being exploited.

    To prevent a different incarnation of the same evil, the government has a key role to play in limiting the exposure of children below 18 years from hawking wares on the streets, a practice which makes them highly vulnerable to assault by predators who lurk around looking for whom to devour. The Child Rights Act should be passed into law. It will be interesting to see parents, guardians, civil right groups and other advocacy groups actively push for its passage to restore the beacon of hope for the upcoming generations. Endowment fund should be set aside for orphans and vulnerable children to assist in their upkeep and provision of shelter for those who lack a roof over their heads. These homes should be run by people of proven character and integrity to ensure accountability and equity in running the affairs of these homes.

    The stiff arm of the law should also fall hard on perpetrators of this heinous crime to serve as a deterrent to others. For us to reconcile the mistakes of the past, most teenagers – especially young girls who have been victims of molestation, depression, drug abuse, low self-esteem etc – should be rehabilitated.

    Civil rights groups, NGOs and government should lend a hand of love to ensure these categories of persons are re-integrated into the society. The government should build rehabilitation centres for victims of sexual assault. Such moves will help to cushion the ripple effects of the abuse. We can best tackle this hydra-headed monster if we all act decisively to stop the evil before it ruins the beautiful future that awaits our girls.

     

    • Amos, 300-Level Mathematics and Computer Science, UNIAGRIC Makurdi