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Tag: Justice

  • JDPC engages secondary school students in enforcing child’s right laws

    A faith-based non-governmental organisation, Justice, Peace and Development Commission (JPDC), Ibadan has inaugurated Child’s Rights Clubs in 20 selected secondary schools in Oyo state to help in the enforcement of child rights laws in the state.

    The event which held to commemorate this year’s Universal Children’s Day celebration is a follow up to an initial batch of the club inaugurated in over 30 schools, October 2016

    While welcoming guests to the event, the Director of the Commission, Rev. Fr. Ezekiel Ade Owoeye, disclosed that the initiative was put together to raise awareness among school children on the existence of laws that provide for the protection of their rights.

    Part of the highlights of the event was the presentation of educational items to some indigent students in the selected schools to take care of their academic needs for the session. The items included school bags, textbooks, notebooks and cash for their tuitions.

    The Catholic priest also announced that the commission would soon start an empowerment programme to set up indigent parents whose poor income status is affecting the academic progress of their children.

    He added that the assistance will come in form of soft loans, which the beneficiaries will utilize to boost their businesses and ultimately help them to take responsibilities on their children’s education.

    “We have found out that many of the parents who don’t seem to take responsibility for their children’s education are not as irresponsible as we think they are. Some of them failed in their duties because they don’t have the means.

    “This is why we are initiating the project to help lift them out of poverty so that they will be able to play their role effectively as responsible parents,” he noted.

    Read Also: Rotary schools quiz contest held

    Rev. Fr. Owoeye described the commission as a non-governmental entity set up to provide succour to people in need irrespective of their race, faith and ethnic affiliations.

    The inauguration was witnessed by parents, students, principals of the affected schools, government officials and top officials of JDPC.

    The Head of Programmes, Women Development and Child’s Right Programme of JDPC, Mrs Omotayo Adebayo said the objective of the inauguration of the clubs was to help students teach one another and expose them to the provisions of the Child Right Laws to protect them.

  • Ganduje: Court fixes December 6 for judgment

    A Kano High Court has fixed Thursday, December 6 to rule on whether the state House of Assembly has the power to investigate the bribery allegation against Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.

    The National Coordinator of “Lawyers for Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria’’, an NGO, Mr Mohammed Zubair had filed a suit challenging the court’s constitutional right to investigate the bribery allegation.

    When the case came up for hearing on Wednesday, counsel to the Kano state House of Assembly, Mohammed Waziri argued that the Assembly had the power to investigate any person including the governor for the purpose of making laws and checking corruption.

    Read Also:Court remands fake army Colonel

    He said even though the governor had immunity but it is not against the investigation to be conducted by the House.

    Waziri, therefore, prayed the court to dismiss the application filed by the counsel to the plaintiff due to the fact that it was trying to usurp powers given to the House by the constitution.

    However, in his argument, counsel to the plaintiff, Nuraini Jimoh said the House had the power to investigate the governor in view of the fact that it would conduct the investigation in order to expose corruption specifically mentioned by the constitution.

    “What the House is investigating is no doubt a crime against the governor. But by doing so, they are exercising their powers to expose corruption,’’ he said.

    In his submission, the third defendant, who is also the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ibrahim Muktar maintained that the House had no power to conduct criminal investigation against the governor.

    According to him, the state Assembly has no trained experts or investigators to conduct the investigation, and as such assignment should be referred to the police or any relevant agencies.

    “The House has no capacity to conduct criminal investigation and it will be to the detriment of the person being investigated because they lack the capacity to conduct the investigation,” he said.

    In his ruling after listening to the argument of both parties, the presiding Judge, Justice, A. T. Badamasi fixed Thursday, December 6 for judgment on whether the state Assembly had the power to carry out the investigation or not.

    NAN

  • And Abah seeks justice for Ochanya

    Some men are goats. Two of such goats, a father and his son, were the cause of a grim assembly in Ogene-Amejo village in Benue last Friday. That day, dozens of sad people gathered around a grave; many were dressed in black. And placards-bearing ladies and men called for justice for Ochanya, 13, whose remains had just been lowered into the earth. She was killed on October 17. She was not killed with gun; she was not killed with machete; and neither was she strangled. Goats masquerading as men violated her for a long time and emptied life out of her. Yet all she wanted was education which made her leave her mother to live with her aunt in Ugbokolo.

    Her hunger for education clashed with the hunger of her aunt’s husband, Andrew Ogbuja, 52, and his son, Victor Inalegwu Ogbuja, a final year student of Animal Production at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, for  inordinate sex. It is painful that Ogbuja, who is the Head of Department, Catering and Hotel Management at the Benue State Polytechnic, Ugbokolo, took advantage of a girl’s quest for knowledge. And his son, now on the run, joined in.

    “When I was eight years old, the son started sleeping with me and when his sister caught him, she reported him to their father and the father scolded him. From there, the father also started sleeping with me,” Ochanya had told a court in August.

    The law is looking for Victor; his father is facing trial for the serial rape of Ochanya, who will not see the goats go to jail.

    There are allegations the duo drugged and threatened Ochaya to have their way with her. Their act eventually made her ill and diagnosed with Vesicovaginal fistula (VVF)—the medical cause of her death.

    At the forefront of seeking justice for the deceased is Mrs Betty Abah, the Executive Director, Centre for Children’s Health Education, Orientation and Protection (CEE-HOPE).

    From what Mrs Abah told Daily Trust, Ochanya’s is one of many cases of goats raping minors.  ”This year alone, in three of the rape cases we handled, the victims’ families backed down, either at the police station levels or in court after so much noise because they were either intimidated by the superior money-power of the suspects or they just don’t trust the disposition of the court to dispense justice for them speedily. And for those three, we even had to fight off police interference. It’s that bad,” she said.

    Shameless Andrew is a knight of the Catholic Church, a feat he wanted to use to bamboozle the court into allowing him to resolve the matter at the “family level.”

    “I think Ochanya’s case is a tipping point in the history of Nigeria, (a point) where we all pause and make a collective decision to end sexual violence in the country. The root of the prevalence of these heinous crimes against children and even adults is the laxity of the law enforcement agencies, weak laws, non-enforcement of the current ones, and to a general extent, a lackadaisical judicial system. If perpetrators and potential ones know that the law would descend on them, we would have seen some deterrence,” she said.

    The police and judicial system, as Abah noted, must wake up from their slumber on sexual crimes. The law, I agree with Abah, must be above all.

    “People of all shades and classes, especially children, must be sensitised to report cases and enforce their rights. We all have the responsibility of protecting the vulnerable people among us. The law has to take on rapists in such a vexed manner and the rest of society has to shame perpetrators in such a profound way that it makes the crime completely unattractive,” she said.

    Ochanya must get justice and only then can her spirit truly rest. Victor must be captured and made to pay for his sin against man and God. Thanks to Mrs Abah and others, it is unlikely the case will be swept under the carpet.

  • Osun 2018: Group asks political parties to submit financial reports to INEC

    A Christian faith-based Non Governmental Organization, the Justice, Development And Peace Makers’ Centre (JDPMC) in partnership with the International Foundation For Electoral Systems (IFES) has called on all political parties that participated in the just concluded Osun governorship election to submit their audit reports on campaign finances to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before or next March.
    Addressing reporters at a press briefing in Osogbo, the state capital, the General Coordinator of the JDPMC, Rev. Fr. Peter Akinkunmi, said the political parties are also expected to publish the reports in at least two national dailies in compliance with the provision of Electoral Act of 2010 as amended.
    He further disclosed that the INEC is expected to make copies of the financial reports of the political parties available to the public as required by the provisions of section 93 of the Electoral Acts.
    Akinkunmi, who advised the INEC in collaboration with other regulatory agencies to ensure any political party that fail to comply are sanctioned, disclosed that all political parties in 2015 general elections failed to submit their financial report six months after the exercise.
    He lamented that the INEC has not initiated any legal action against defaulting political parties in the past elections.
    Akinkunmi also disclosed that the JPDMC ‘s findings include tracking of all political activities such as rallies, expenses on posters and Bill boards, branded campaign vehicles and media engagement by three political parties in the poll, the ruling All Progressives Congress, the People’s Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party, across the 30 local governments of the state for three months, spanning the beginning of their campaigns up to the rerun election on September 27.
    According to him, the findings revealed that the APC spent N969,516,000 million, the PDP expended N597,678,000 and the SDP incurred N349,707,000.

    Read Also: INEC to begin display of voters’ register Nov 6 in Edo

    He said: “The amount stated above is an estimate of expenses on rallies and campaigns, Ward meetings, billboards, posters, media advertisements, electronic media, purchase of campaign vehicles and branding, campaign offices across the council  areas, costumes among other generated by transparently quantifying the item and accessing the cost of these items from credible sources.
    “We, therefore, state that the amount quoted was an estimated cost of the political activities of the three political parties tracked  and don’t pretend to be  report of the exact amount that they have spent. We also found out that third parties such as individual persons and associations campaigned through the use of radio jingles, branded vehicles and T-shirts, billboards and posters as well as open street rallies for all three parties monitored.
    “This is in violation of the section 221 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which states that no association other than a political party shall canvass for votes for any candidate at any election or contribute to the funds of any political party or to the election expenses of any candidate at an election.”

  • NMA demands justice for late Ochanya, allegedly raped by father, son

    The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) wants the federal government to ensure that justice is done in the case of the late Miss Ochanya Ogbanje, allegedly raped by father and son in Gboko, Benue State.

    Dr. Godwin Tijani, Chairman, National Ad hoc Committee on Gender Violence and other Related Issues of NMA, made the call in a statement in Lokoja yesterday.

    He said that justice to the deceased 13-year-old girl would be justice to millions of women across the world, who are victims of gender violence.

    Tijani said that NMA took rape as a crime against humanity and insisted that government and other stakeholders should do the needful and bring the alleged perpetrators of the act to justice.

    He reiterated the urgent need for Nigerians to rise against all forms of gender-based violence in the country.

    He said: “We have received with a deep shock the news of the death of Miss Ochanya Ogbanje, a 13-year-old pupil of Federal Government Girls College (FGGC) in Gboko.

    “We feel more saddened that her death was caused by a medical condition called “Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF)” and other related complications that arose from alleged serial sexual abuses by a father and his son.

    “The Nigerian Medical Association totally condemns this heinous act and advises the police and the judiciary to ensure that justice is served on the culprits for all Nigerians to see,” he said.

    Tijani commended all women groups and NGOs which came out publicly to protest and condemn the act in its entirety.

    He solicited support of all stakeholders in humanity towards the campaign against gender-based violence in the country.

    “The Gender-Violence Committee of NMA is ready to partner Women Affairs Ministry at federal and state levels, groups, organisations and NGOs to enlighten the public on the danger of rape and any gender-violence-related issues to reduce the menace.”

    The chairman said that such enlightenment should be directed at schools, social clubs, churches, mosques and the media, to demystify the myths about gender violence.

    The deceased was allegedly raped serially by one Andrew Ogboja, 51, and his son, Victor.

    The man is a lecturer in the Department of Catering and Hotel Management, Benue State Polytechnic, Ugbokolo, while his son is a final year student at Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi.

    Tijjani said that Ochanya died following a complication from VVF and other health complications at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi.

    “The deceased was living with them and for many years they defiled her through vagina and anal sex,” he said.

     

  • Rivers seeks justice for 2015 poll killings

    COMMUNITIES in Rivers State are demanding justice for the 2015 general election violence, beheading and killings in the 23 local governments.

    Residents of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government have called on the Federal Government to prosecute persons behind the killings and violence.

    They spoke on Monday when All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate Pastor Tonye Cole visited party members.

    Cole was accompanied by Director-General of Tonye Cole Campaign Organisation Dr. Chidi Lloyd; APC’s candidate for Rivers West Honourable Asita; and Director-General of True Rivers Development Initiative Sampson Ngerebara; among others.

    While addressing APC supporters at Krigene in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, the governorship candidate assured the people they would surely find peace and justice

    Cole said: “The people of Rivers communities lifted their voices up to God and not man. He (God) said I should let you know that there will be no more death in this town and other Rivers communities. No more wasting of lives. As God is our witness, the pains in your hearts, we will find justice for them.

    “Your message has been heard loud and clear. It has been captured. Do not worry. There is no peace in this area, because of the killings and violence of 2015.”

    Asita, the 2015 deputy governorship candidate, regretted that people from Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni were involved in the killing of their kinsmen.

    Lloyd also said the violence that greeted the 2015 elections led to the killing of youths, leading to increase in widows in the area.

    A community leader, Eze Ahiakwo, said many people in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni were killed before, during and after the 2015 elections.

    Ahiakwo noted that a prominent indigene of Krigene, Chief Christopher Ahidu, who is leader of APC in Ward 6, was murdered with another member of the community in November, 2014.

  • ‘I love NBA, but I love justice more’

    The immediate past Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) General Secretary Mazi Afam Osigwe spoke to reporters on his disqualification from contesting for the association’s presidency and other issues surrounding the national officers’ election, which holds from Thursday till Saturday. ROBERT EGBE was there.

    Critics have faulted your claims against the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) electoral process. What is your response to them?

    Events surrounding the NBA election have shown to sceptics and those who felt that I made a wild allegation about attempts to unjustly influence the process and take decisions not supported by law, that the allegations I made were actually not unfounded. I say this, bearing in mind the reasons for my disqualification, because the matter is pending in court, I will only describe the grounds for my disqualification as being spurious.

    What are some of the actions of the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA) that you disagree with?

    We had cause to point out that the mode the electoral committee embarked on in collecting data for the electoral committee was not only wrong, but impracticable and in conflict with the letter and spirit of the NBA constitution, and that it also wrongly gave too much power to the branches and that the power could be abused.

    We did point out that the proper thing for the NBA to do was to rely on data collected from the statement of account, that it was wrong to ask branches to collect tellers from members and that this was worrisome in the light of the fact that some candidates paid practice fees and branch dues for young lawyers and kept those tellers without giving it to them. They did the submission of documents on their behalf and only gave them photocopies of tellers, long after the date stipulated for that.

    We pointed out that if you look at the second schedule (of the NBA constitution), it presupposes that the act of registering to be a voter is the act of the lawyer, and that under the NBA constitution, the electoral committee lacks the power to delegate data  collection to branches, that all the branches are supposed to do is to submit the list of members of their branches that paid branch dues and for NBA to match it with its data and produce the preliminary voters’ list and require lawyers to go online and register to vote. So, by updating your records you have indicated that you want to vote. Unfortunately, this was not done.

    What effects do you think these actions have had?

    In some places like Abuja and a few others where there were crises, you see an unwholesome situation where after publishing some people’s names as voters, or publishing their names in the preliminary voters’ register, suddenly their name disappeared entirely from the final voters’ list, because they said a faction not recognised by the NBA submitted their names, even when they could not fault the fact that they paid Bar practice fees and branch dues, you said because a man you do not recognise submitted their names, they will not vote. So, you see Abuja (voting population) dropping by more than 50 percent, and it is intentional because I was originally from Abuja branch and it was supposed to be my strong base and so, they were cherry picking. If they felt a person was supporting me, even down to my own wife and all the lawyers in my office, the person was weeded out of the voters’ register.

    How do you hope to remedy the situation?

    I filed a motion for injunction to stop the election into the office of the President, my contention being that the NBA constitution allows the First Vice President of the NBA to act in the absence of the President; the substance of my suit relates to my unlawful disqualification and unlawful exclusion from the election. In other words, my suit stands on being allowed to participate in the election into the office of the President. But, also realising that the current leadership of the NBA has not had a record of respecting court orders, as we saw happen in NBA Abuja branch, my counsel felt that it was important to include a prayer seeking the nullification of the election, if NBA, despite the pendency of the suit, goes ahead to conduct the election.

    But, from all indications, the election will go on as scheduled on Monday?

    Now you would expect a lawful and respectful organisation faced with this kind of situation, whether it be right or wrong, to hold on and await the outcome of the court. That’s my understanding of the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Peter Obi vs INEC. If I were on the NBA electoral committee, knowing that this issue has been presented to court, I would, even in the absence of an injunction, not conduct an election into the office of the President, knowing that the NBA will not grind to a halt.

    Can these situations be avoided in the future?

    When the administration I served as General Secretary introduced electronic voting, the President then (Austine Alegeh SAN) did say that the society should emulate it. I’m not sure we can make that argument with any confidence or pride now, because even before the election, people already believed that this election will never meet the least of international best practices. People already believe that the electoral committee is conducting a concluded election, and that is not complimentary.

    So, I would want to see the electoral process sanitised, I would want us to develop a system of appointing independent persons to conduct the elections. I would want to see a situation where there’s more openness than we have presently. I would want a system where branches must, as a matter of course, not receive cash payments so that payments can be easily verified. I want to see a system where the NBA is actually able to keep records, because to contest for some of these offices, you are required to have served in a branch executive committee. Some people simply say they have served, but we have no way of finding out whether they have said the truth or not. I would also want to see a situation where we remove some of the restrictions that limit people’s ability to participate, like saying you must have been in the National Executive Committee (NEC) for two years. We need to review that and remove it. We also need to have a stabilised way of saying, ‘this is how you calculate age at the Bar, so that somebody who will turn 10 years in November, is not trying to contest in June for that same office when she has not turned 10, and when the law is clear that it is 10 years post-enrolment.

    Don’t you find it odd that you’re suing an association you are seeking to lead?

    I love the NBA, but I love justice more. Normally, I don’t think it is right for someone to sue an association he seeks to lead, but sometimes to sanitise a system, you need to challenge the system. I also went to court so that this does not happen to another person. If that makes me a sacrificial lamb, so be it. Some people call me and say, “Oh! By suing the NBA, if you apply for Silk tomorrow, they won’t give you.” I tell them that when it is my time to take Silk, if it is the will of God, I will take it. I will not for fear of what will happen today, fail to take a necessary action, and it’s not about benefits, because if it were, I’m sure if I sit down to negotiate, I can be promised juicy things. But at some point in your life you must live for or be remembered for something and I want people to be able to reference my case as a point where people stood up to challenge this system. Probably, this has continued because people always accepted this in silence, but I never do and I don’t believe we should….We will do all that is necessary for us to diligently get justice in the matter.

     

     

  • ‘I love NBA, but I love justice more’

    The immediate past Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) General Secretary Mazi Afam Osigwe spoke to reporters on his disqualification from contesting for the association’s presidency and other issues surrounding the national officers’ election, which holds from Thursday till Saturday. ROBERT EGBE was there.

    Critics have faulted your claims against the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) electoral process. What is your response to them?

    Events surrounding the NBA election have shown to sceptics and those who felt that I made a wild allegation about attempts to unjustly influence the process and take decisions not supported by law, that the allegations I made were actually not unfounded. I say this, bearing in mind the reasons for my disqualification, because the matter is pending in court, I will only describe the grounds for my disqualification as being spurious.

    What were some of the actions of the Electoral Committee of the NBA (ECNBA) that you disagreed with?

    We had cause to point out that the mode the electoral committee embarked on in collecting data for the electoral committee was not only wrong, but impracticable and in conflict with the letter and spirit of the NBA constitution, and that it also wrongly gave too much power to the branches and that the power could be abused.

    We did point out that the proper thing for the NBA to do was to rely on data collected from the statement of account, that it was wrong to ask branches to collect tellers from members and that this was worrisome in the light of the fact that some candidates paid practice fees and branch dues for young lawyers and kept those tellers without giving it to them. They did the submission of documents on their behalf and only gave them photocopies of tellers, long after the date stipulated for that.

    We pointed out that if you look at the second schedule (of the NBA constitution), it presupposes that the act of registering to be a voter is the act of the lawyer, and that under the NBA constitution, the electoral committee lacks the power to delegate data  collection to branches, that all the branches are supposed to do is to submit the list of members of their branches that paid branch dues and for NBA to match it with its data and produce the preliminary voters’ list and require lawyers to go online and register to vote. So, by updating your records you have indicated that you want to vote. Unfortunately, this was not done.

    What effects do you think these actions have had?

    In some places like Abuja and a few others where there were crises, you see an unwholesome situation where after publishing some people’s names as voters, or publishing their names in the preliminary voters’ register, suddenly their name disappeared entirely from the final voters’ list, because they said a faction not recognised by the NBA submitted their names, even when they could not fault the fact that they paid Bar practice fees and branch dues, you said because a man you do not recognise submitted their names, they will not vote. So, you see Abuja (voting population) dropping by more than 50 percent, and it is intentional because I was originally from Abuja branch and it was supposed to be my strong base and so, they were cherry picking. If they felt a person was supporting me, even down to my own wife and all the lawyers in my office, the person was weeded out of the voters’ register.

    How do you hope to remedy the situation?

    I filed a motion for injunction to stop the election into the office of the President, my contention being that the NBA constitution allows the First Vice President of the NBA to act in the absence of the President; the substance of my suit relates to my unlawful disqualification and unlawful exclusion from the election. In other words, my suit stands on being allowed to participate in the election into the office of the President. But, also realising that the current leadership of the NBA has not had a record of respecting court orders, as we saw happen in NBA Abuja branch, my counsel felt that it was important to include a prayer seeking the nullification of the election, if NBA, despite the pendency of the suit, goes ahead to conduct the election.

    But, from all indications, the election will go on as scheduled on Monday (yesterday) and Tuesday (today)?

    Now you would expect a lawful and respectful organisation faced with this kind of situation, whether it be right or wrong, to hold on and await the outcome of the court. That’s my understanding of the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Peter Obi vs INEC. If I were on the NBA electoral committee, knowing that this issue has been presented to court, I would, even in the absence of an injunction, not conduct an election into the office of the President, knowing that the NBA will not grind to a halt.

    Can these kinds of situations be avoided in the future?

    When the administration I served as General Secretary introduced electronic voting, the President then (Austine Alegeh SAN) did say that the society should emulate it. I’m not sure we can make that argument with any confidence or pride now, because even before the election, people already believed that this election will never meet the least of international best practices. People already believe that the electoral committee is conducting a concluded election, and that is not complimentary.

    So, I would want to see the electoral process sanitised, I would want us to develop a system of appointing independent persons to conduct the elections. I would want to see a situation where there’s more openness than we have presently. I would want a system where branches must, as a matter of course, not receive cash payments so that payments can be easily verified. I want to see a system where the NBA is actually able to keep records, because to contest for some of these offices, you are required to have served in a branch executive committee. Some people simply say they have served, but we have no way of finding out whether they have said the truth or not. I would also want to see a situation where we remove some of the restrictions that limit people’s ability to participate, like saying you must have been in the National Executive Committee (NEC) for two years. We need to review that and remove it. We also need to have a stabilised way of saying, ‘this is how you calculate age at the Bar, so that somebody who will turn 10 years in November, is not trying to contest in June for that same office when she has not turned 10, and when the law is clear that it is 10 years post-enrolment.

    Don’t you find it odd that you’re suing an association you are seeking to lead?

    I love the NBA, but I love justice more. Normally, I don’t think it is right for someone to sue an association he seeks to lead, but sometimes to sanitise a system, you need to challenge the system. I also went to court so that this does not happen to another person. If that makes me a sacrificial lamb, so be it. Some people call me and say, “Oh! By suing the NBA, if you apply for Silk tomorrow, they won’t give you.” I tell them that when it is my time to take Silk, if it is the will of God, I will take it. I will not for fear of what will happen today, fail to take a necessary action, and it’s not about benefits, because if it were, I’m sure if I sit down to negotiate, I can be promised juicy things. But at some point in your life you must live for or be remembered for something and I want people to be able to reference my case as a point where people stood up to challenge this system. Probably, this has continued because people always accepted this in silence, but I never do and I don’t believe we should….We will do all that is necessary for us to diligently get justice in the matter.

  • Murderers’ll be brought to justice, Buhari promises

    President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed regrets over the Plateau State killings and vowed that his administration will bring the murderers and sponsors to justice.

    Reacting on his twitter handle; @MBuhari, on Sunday night, the President described the killings as “very painful and regrettable’’.

    Buhari condoled with communities and families of those affected by the dastardly act.

    He tweeted:  ”The grievous loss of lives and property arising from the killings in Plateau today is painful and regrettable.

    “My deepest condolences to the affected communities. We will not rest until all murderers and criminal elements and their sponsors are incapacitated and brought to justice.’’

    The Police confirmed that 86 people were killed in attacks on Razat, Ruku, Nyarr, Kura and Gana-Ropp villages of Gashish District in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of the state.

    Governor Simon Lalong imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on three local government areas – Riyom, Barkin Ladi and Jos South  – to check further breakdown of law and order.

    In a statement yesterday by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, the President said: “We know that a number of geographical and economic factors are contributing to the longstanding herdsmen/farmers clashes.

    “But we also know that politicians are taking advantage of the situation. This is incredibly unfortunate.

    “Nigerians affected by the herdsmen/ farmers clashes must always allow the due process of the law to take its course rather than taking matters into their own hands.’’

    The Presidency quoted security information which indicated that about 100 cattle were rustled by a community in Plateau State, and some herdsmen were killed.

    The report also revealed that Lalong, had invited the aggrieved groups and pleaded against further action while the law enforcement agents looked into the matter.

    Less than 24 hours later, violence broke out.

    It further stated that some local thugs then took advantage of the situation, turning it into an opportunity to extort the public, and to attack people from rival political parties.

    “There were reports of vehicles being stopped, with people being dragged out of their cars and attacked if they stated that they supported certain politicians or political parties.

    “On his way back to Jos after attending the All Progressives Congress (APC) Convention in Abuja, the state governor had to dismantle a number of illegal road blocks set up by these thugs. There were also a number of dead bodies thugs had killed, lying along the road,’’ the report added.

    In a broadcast to the people yesterday, Lalong said the government would reinforce security in attack-prone communities.

    He said: “Government has taken decisive steps to reinforce security, particularly in communities prone to attacks.

    “In the same vein, government is working to tackle the underlying causes of conflict.’’

    The governor said that the resurgence of violence in the state was reprehensible as much as condemnable.

    Lalong, who condoled with the families of those affected, prayed God to grant the deceased rest in His glorified kingdom.

    The governor assured the people that the government was conscious of its responsibilities of protection of lives and properties of its citizenry.

    “I took oath to protect and secure the lives and property of our citizens as governor of Plateau.

    “For this reason, my administration has placed high premium on peace, security and good governance, being the first item on our five-pillar policy thrust.

    “Regardless of the threat we face today, we remain resolute in our commitment to arrest the vicious circle of violence and lay the foundation of sustainable peace,” he added.

    Lalong urged all and sundry to exercise restraint, observe the curfew in place, saying that traditional rulers, religious leaders, elders, political leaders and their subjects should remain vigilant.

    Lalong also advised them to cooperate with security agencies working to keep the peace.

    “Let me strongly caution against any deliberate attempt to politicise the crises, giving it religious colouration, fake news, deliberate distortions and misinformation.

    “Government through the appropriate security agencies will not hesitate to deal decisively with any trouble maker or peace spoiler,” the governor warned.

  • Law, justice and the June 12 question

    Nigerians wouldn’t have been the most excitable people they are globally acclaimed to be had the familiar legal hair-splitting not attended the national awards conferred on Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 elections and the foremost human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi by President Muhammadu Buhari penultimate week. Clearly, Nigeria may have been described as a country never in short supply of excitable moments, some of the reactions that have trailed it has merely reinforced this national character.

    In an environment permanently locked in the partisan mode, dissensions would not only seem the natural order but something to be expected. Dissension, by the way – if I may borrow the Biblical cliché –is the way we live and have our being. For daring to reach out for the trophy of righting the historic wrong, the administration has been variously accused of cynically manipulating the historic event for political advantage. Others, perhaps more charitable, have insisted that what the president did was doing the right act done in a wrong way. Considering – some say – the mass alienation of the southwest in particular –the motive(s), they charged could not be altruistic!

    And now – the ruse – as against the ballyhooed – rule of law has since come handy for those interested in obfuscating issues than see justice done. For something that every fair-minded citizens has long deemed cut and dried, the revelation of how deep the resentment still runs in some people’s veins –the usual familiar quarters –which sees any attempt – even merely symbolic – to revisit the historic wrong as something of an equivalent of their own Golgotha moment – must be something to chew upon.

    Pity that a quarter of a century gone by has quite clearly failed to wash off those terrible blinkers hence the specious patriotism couched in legalism.

    Thanks to President Muhammadu Buhari, the nation would appear to have turned a new chapter – even as it turned that not a few remain unimpressed – and that is to put things mildly. On Tuesday, June 12, he dared to do what others before him couldn’t find the courage to do, or as in an earlier attempt made, half-heartedly.

    As they say in these parts – the president literally killed two birds with one stone. In what appears a move designed to stoke a fierce fire of legalism, the president did not stop at announcing a posthumous honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic on Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, and Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger on the irrepressible lawyer – Gani Fawehinmi, he went as far as putting June 12 on the nation’s foremost calendar as Democracy Day.

    Not so fast – said former Chief Justice of the Federation, Alfa Belgore – and with it an instinctive disclaimer:  “It is not done…”

    The national honours committee – which he chaired in 2016(?) – he said, was not consulted prior to the decision. He claimed, citing Section 3 (1) and (2) of the National Honours Act,  that the particular awards could not be done posthumously: “Subject to the next following paragraph of this article, a person shall be appointed to a particular rank of an Order when he receives from the President in person, at an investiture held for the purpose”.

    Did the revered jurist bother read the next subsection? That seems doubtful. That subsection, clearly unambiguous, gave the president the latitude to do what he did. It reads: – If in the case of any person it appears to the President expedient to dispense with the requirements of paragraph (2) of this article, he may direct that that person shall be appointed to the rank in question in such a manner as may be specified in the direction!

    Case closed? You bet not. Foremost constitution lawyer, Prof Ben Nwabueze (SAN) has  since opened another flank – at best a variant of the same specious legalism. Last week, he fired a statement to The Guardian titled “President Buhari’s 6th June, 2018 Declaration of a New Democracy Day and the Rule of Law”.

    And what did legal luminary say?

    First, he questioned the motive behind the declaration – “whether it is motivated by the public interest or by a political desire to secure the votes of Nigerians in the 2019 election, especially the votes of people of the South-West or to sow the seed of division among the members of the National Assembly in order to scuttle the threat to impeach him or to throw the country into turmoil or to smear the polity with the taint of illegality”.

    He then concluded: “A motive of mischief seems evident on the face of the declaration. It is indeed a masterstroke of mischief and insincerity, a deceitful contrivance, suddenly and mischievously trumped up to rescue his dying image three years after his installation as president”.

    I will concede that the eminent lawyer is entitled to his opinion. In fact, he is entitled to conjure as many doomsday scenarios that suit his moods or fancies even when these fly in the face of reality. My question: if the specific acts resultant from the declaration is deemed as positive and desirable as it appears that our legal luminary somehow believe they do, do we then treat them as wrong only because of some perceived benefits accruable to the initiator?

    Second, he delved into what he called the legal aspects of the President’s Declaration, and pronounced, rather gracelessly, that the president misfired! Let’s look closely at his grouses? To him, the Federal Military Government (FMG) Decree No. 61 of 1993, which annulled the June 12, 1993 election, would seem cast in steel and so would remain inviolable perhaps for all ages!

    In the opinion of the learned Silk, President Buhari had no right to treat the decree, which he calls “as a matter both of fact and law” as if it does not exist! Here at once is the supreme irony of it all: a foremost constitutional scholar treating the corrective, albeit largely inchoate acts of an elected sovereign as inferior if not subordinate to a military decree procured under the cover of darkness to subvert the will of the Nigerian people!

    I need not to into the other leg of his argument about the Rule of Law being more fundamental and overriding than any consideration of justice! His exact words: Respect for the rule of law must not therefore be sacrificed to the need for justice.

    Thankfully, not everyone subscribes to this specious but tragically mechanistic view of the relationship between law in process and justice as an end. Not least is the revered Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka whose famous dictum –Justice is the first condition of humanity – has long provided humanity a worthy template for resolving the thorny question in the face of the endless clashes between the forces of regression known to trade the ruse for the rule.

    By the way – I almost forgot to add that Nwabueze not only served in that infamous contraption called the Interim National Government – put in place to bury the June 12 struggle, he was the drum major in the orchestra to confer legitimacy to that interim nonsense.

    Glad to be back!