A prominent civil Rights organization- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has warned against serial disobedience of Court bail orders granted erstwhile National Security Adviser Colonel Sambo Dasuki as committed by the President Muhammadu Buhari's administration stressing that the unconstitutional tendencies are breeding anarchy and impunity on a larger scale.
Besides, HURIWA has condemned the Presidency for converting the presidential media department as the propaganda wing of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association, an organization that harbours sponsors of the various armed Fulani terror attacks of farming communities in Benue, Plateau, Taraba; Adamawa and Southern Kaduna State leading to over 6,000 deaths of children, women and the aged. HURIWA also stated that the ignominious role of the Presidential media office is disheartening and amounts to a grave threat to national security.
Specifically, HURIWA queries the office of the Presidential media adviser for coordinating the purported denial of the original interview granted to the Jos based Correspondent of The Nation by the North Central leader of Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association Alhaji Danladi Ciroma in which he admitted that the recent attacks in BARKIN Ladi was a retaliatory strike for the purported theft of 300 cows by the local communities that witnessed the unleashing of bloody violence by armed Fulani herdsmen. "This is a direct confrontation to The constitutional oath of office sworn to by The President not to allow his Ethno Religious interests becloud The implementation of policies that promotes and protect national interests just as The group demanded The immediate sack of the entire Presidential media crew of the Presidency for converting a public office to a private media machinery of suspected perpetrators of terror attacks against farming communities that are mostly Christians in The North central region of Nigeria.
On the recent bail granted by the Federal High Court in Abuja to the immediate-past National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd), from the custody of the Department of State Service where he had been detained for two and a half years, HURIWA has urged the international community to demand that the Nigerian President abide by his constitutional obligations and order the release of this Nigerian citizen given that section 36(5) of the Constitution states that a suspect before the competent court of law is innocent in the eyes of the law until a contrary determination is reached by a competent court of law.
HURIWA affirmed that the serial disobedience of courts by the current administration in the cases of Colonel Dasuki and the leader of the Shiites Islamic Movement is a direct affront to the principle of Rule of law and offends the fundamentals of the nation's democratic tenets and principles even as these public show of shame and desecration of the temple of justice and the Constitution by President Muhammadu Buhari's administration are directly providing moral support and motivation for the growth of lawlessness and sophisticated crimes and criminality in all of Nigeria since the rest of the members of the underworld in Nigeria can now heave a sigh of relief and affirm that since the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can abuse and desecrate the constitution, it then means that chaos, anarchy and doom are now the hallmark of our existence as a corporate entity.
"HURIWA is shocked and worried that for three years running, the government of the day has adopted and implemented measures aimed at degrading the constitutional place of the court system through direct confrontation and deployment of armed security forces of the Department of state services under the direct supervision of President Muhammadu Buhari to invade the private homes of judges and justices of the Federal High Court; Court of Appeal and Supreme COURT and ironically most of the Federal High Court judges and Justices of the Supreme court whose homes were invaded and searched by DSS in anticipation of finding incriminating objects have all been freed by the competent court of law and deemed completely innocent. One of the Supreme court justices Justice Okiro whose house was literally demolished in the wee hours of the invasion by DSS and arrested and detained for days before been freed after much public protests was never even charged to court talk more of either been convicted nor freed. This current administration has continuously breached the different rulings of the courts of competent jurisdiction and has specifically and openly admitted that it will not respect any court orders to release on bail the duo of Dasuki and Ibrahim Elzackzacky of Islamic Movement of Nigeria whose over 600 unarmed members were slaughtered by Nigerian soldiers during a public protest in Zaria Kaduna state. BUHARI must call the heads of security forces and especial my the DSS to stop behaving as if the Department of state services is above the laws and constitution of Nigeria when in actual fact they are even creations of even lower statutes than even the Constitution which is the Supreme laws of the land which concedes the judicial powers of the federation to the Courts of competent jurisdiction in accordance with section 6 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 ( as amended)".
"HURIWA is worried that whilst the nation slides into anarchy and chaos, officials of the current government have continued to create the situations that are complicating the existential crises threatening to destroy the fabrics of our nation and bring us into global opprobrium. This ugly trend if not repressed and arrested could inevitably destroy the constitutional democracy that we are practicing or purports to be practicing. All people of goodwill must speak out and demand accountability from the current administration in the area of enforcement of the Rule of law".
HURIWA recalled in a delivering judgment in the suit filed by the ex-NSA in March this year, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu ruled that his detention since December 29, 2015, amounted to a violation of his right to liberty.
HURIWA recalled that the judge, who rejected the ex-NSA’s prayer for N5bn damages granted him bail in the sum of N200m with two sureties who must either be a civil servant of Grade Level 16 at the minimum in the Federal Civil Service or private citizens, who have landed properties in the municipal areas of Abuja.
HURIWA commended the judge for ruling that the Federal Government’s contention that Dasuki was being kept in custody on the grounds of his alleged threat to national security and his alleged ongoing investigation for money laundering did not warrant “abrogating his right”.
HURIWA further applauded the Judge for granting Ex-NSA not just bail but for saying that should there be any further reason to interrogate him, DSS could only invite and interview him between the hours of 9am and 6pm on working days just as the group said the court's decision has rekindled the people's confidence in the judiciary as the last bus stop for the oppressed and the commoners.
HURIWA recalled too that the latest ruling is coming about one year and nine months after the Economic Community of West African States Court of Justice on October 4, 2016, ordered his release from illegal custody; a judgement which the DSS had not obeyed.
No comments:
Post a Comment