OSHIOMHOLE/METUH: HURIWA ACCUSES EFCC OF VEXATIOUS PARTISANSHIP: *Accuses NASS of sell out to Magu:

A leading Pro-democracy and Non-Governmental organization- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has lambasted the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes commission ( EFCC) Alhaji Ibrahim Magu of annoying show of naked partisanship in the cases of alleged corruption involving the erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the opposition Peoples Democratic party (PDP) Chief Olisa Metuh and the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

The Rights group criticized Alhaji Ibrahim Magu-led EFCC for confiscating all the banking assets of the erstwhile spokesman of the PDP even when the Court of competent jurisdiction has yet to convict him of any of the charges instituted by the anti-graft body against the former trenchant critic of President Muhammadu Buhari-Mr. Olisa Metuh but expressed shock that the same EFCC has filed a motion before a Federal High Court to stop it from granting mandamus order compelling the EFCC to investigate and file charges of corruption against the National Chairman of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for the purported theft of billions of public fund whilst he served for eight years as the governor of Edo state under the All Progressives Congress. 

HURIWA also expressed shock that Ibrahim Magu is still the head of EFCC and the Senate has no qualms passing EFCC'S budget and the Secretary of the panel even when the President disrespected the decision of the upper legislative chamber to disqualify Ibrahim Magu from confirmation based on his indictment by the Department of state services.

HURIWA recalled that the Federal High Court, Abuja had ordered the service of its processes on All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, over an alleged financial malfeasance during his stewardship as governor of Edo State.

HURIWA stated that Justice Anwuli Chikere gave the order while ruling on an ex-parte application brought before the court by Bishop Osadolor Ochei.

HURIWA further recalled that the application is seeking an order of mandamus to compel the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to arrest and commence criminal proceedings against the ex-leader labour for allegedly diverting state funds for personal use.

The Rights group recalled the judge, who also ordered service on the anti-graft agency, stressed that the exercise must be done within five beginning from yesterday.

The ex-parte, with suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/628/ 2018, and filed by Dr. West Idahosa on behalf of the plaintiff, has Oshiomole and EFCC as first and second respondents.

Idahosa, had while arguing the motion, urged the court to allow the respondents file their replies to the weighty allegations against them.

On the other hand, Ochei had on October 28, 2016, written the EFCC ‎over Oshiomhole, who was Edo governor between November 12, 2008 and November 11, 2016.

While praying the court to grant the request of his client, Idahosa referred the court to 86 exhibits filed in support of the application, stressing that there were documents and graphics of palatial houses of the ex-governor whose his life earnings, he contended, couldn’t acquire.

He said there were evidence on how the APC national chair allegedly diverted money meant for state projects to his.

The counsel added that there were vouchers of exorbitant airfares that the NLC’s erstwhile boss incurred, which according to him, could get Edo people an air carrier.

The lawyer also claimed that there were receipts of how he used huge state funds to repair his private vehicles, urging the court to grant the sought reliefs.

Consequently, the judge adjourned till October 23 for arguments from parties in the suit.
HURIWA however carpeted the EFCC for filing a purported motion to oppose the granting of the mandamus to compel it to do its statutory duty of probing the extensively damaging allegations against the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress whereas the same EFCC had obtained 'jankara market' court injunction to confiscate the accounts of the former National spokesman of PDP as if he has already been convicted even when the constitution in section 36(5) provides that there must be fair hearing for all suspects who are to be presumed innocent before the law until contrary determination is reached by the competent court of law.

HURIWA recalled that a former National Publicity scribe of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olisa Metuh, told the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had on Monday frozen all his bank accounts.

Metuh, who expressed shock over the development, said he learnt of the no-debit order placed on his account after his failed transaction on one of the accounts on Tuesday.

He told the court presided over by Justice Okon Abang that as a result of the development, he could no longer feed his family or buy things as common as water and pain-relieving medicine like Panadol.

Metuh was testifying in his trial as a defence witness when he digressed into making the comments about his frozen accounts on Tuesday.

The ex-spokesperson for the PDP said, “The EFCC seized my accounts yesterday night and I can’t get money to feed my family.

“I am in total shock as I am here talking to you. I don’t even know what to say.
“They seized all my accounts in every bank in this country. As I am don’t have money to buy Panadol or water to drink.”

The ex-spokesperson noted that the freezing of his accounts had to do with his ongoing trial on the charges bordering on the N400m he allegedly received fraudulently from the Office of the National Security Adviser in 2014.

He, however, wondered why the EFCC having earlier seized his assets with the Asset and Resource Management Company Limited and his funds in other banks took the fresh step which he said had denied him access to his funds worth more than the amount at stake in the ongoing trial.

He said, “They have alleged in this case that N400m was stolen. Why would they not limit it to that amount? I don’t know how I am going to feed my family? I don’t have access to any money at all. I am ready to end this case and submit myself to the judgment of this court.”

His lawyer, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), said he had no objection to what his client was saying except the part where he spoke about ending the case.

HURIWA recalled that the EFCC is prosecuting Metuh and his Destra Investments Limited, on seven counts of money laundering and fraudulent receipt of N400m from the Office of the NSA on November 22, 2014, for the PDP’s campaign activities.

But HURIWA criticized the EFCC for not only refusing to investigate the Presidential campaign funds of the pre-2015 opposition Presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari just because he is the appointing authority of the acting Chairman of EFCC. HURIWA said the naked partisanship betrays the enabling law setting up the EFCC as an institution which should carry out their statutory duties without let or hindrance just as the group accused the EFCC of protecting the APC's national chairman who has come under considerable accusations of fraud and bribery and had even been interdicted twice by the Department of state services for allegedly collecting $50 million USD during the just ended party primaries of the APC.

Yemeni children and a cruel World By Emmanuel Onwubiko

It took me two days to process the enormity of the systematic starvation of the children of Yemen in the Middle East leading to thousands of deaths of the innocents even as the world watches in cruel silence.

Yemen, one of the Arab world's poorest countries, has been devastated by a civil war, so says the famous British Broadcasting corporation online version.

The BBC correctly recalled that the conflict has its roots in the failure of a political transition supposed to bring stability to Yemen following an Arab Spring uprising that forced its longtime authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hand over power to his deputy Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, in 2011.

President Hadi struggled to deal with a variety of problems, including attacks by al-Qaeda, a separatist movement in the south, the continuing loyalty of many military officers to Mr. Saleh, as well as corruption, unemployment and food insecurity.

The Houthi movement, which champions Yemen's Zaidi Shia Muslim minority and fought a series of rebellions against Mr. Saleh during the previous decade, took advantage of the new president's weakness by taking control of their northern heartland of Saada province and neighbouring areas.
Disillusioned with the transition, many ordinary Yemenis - including Sunnis - supported the Houthis and in late 2014 and early 2015, the rebels took over Sanaa.

The Houthis and security forces loyal to Mr. Saleh - who is thought to have backed his erstwhile enemies in a bid to regain power - then attempted to take control of the entire country, forcing Mr. Hadi to flee abroad in March 2015.

Alarmed by the rise of a group they believed to be backed militarily by regional Shia power Iran, Saudi Arabia and eight other mostly Sunni Arab states began an air campaign aimed at restoring Mr. Hadi's government. The coalition received logistical and intelligence support from the US, UK and France. These much were reported by the number one publicly owned United Kingdom's media conglomerate.

Whilst still processing this extensively demoralizing and cruel information that the war in Yemen is weaponised by Western powers and that Saudi Arabia stepped into the fray only because Iran backed one of the factions in the then internal political warfare, another devastating news arrived from the Western media that so far 85,000 children in Yemen have died from starvation occasioned by the needless war which is been fueled by Iran, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia too is making use of weapons it bought from U.S.A; Britain and other world powers.

What immediately occurred to me was to ask why the United States of America has allowed history to repeat itself.

Why would America be involved in fueling such war that has serious consequences to the lives of innocent children when it is on record that America single handedly rebuilt Europe from the devastation of the World War II? It looks like in international politics when things seems to have normalized certain belligerent attitudes of some weird political stakeholders would once more reignite the toxic warfare that took place many years ago and especially the one that ended in 1945 resulting in the global intervention of the USA through the Marshall plan that successfully reconstructed the then devastated Europe. I got detailed expert renditions of how the United States carried out the Marshall plan.

War historians states that by the end of World War II much of Europe was devastated. A large portion of the 60 million deaths among World War II casualties were residents of Europe.

As they recalled, fighting had occurred throughout much of the continent, encompassing an area far larger than that in World War I.

These historians told us that sustained aerial bombardment meant that most major cities had been badly damaged, with industrial production especially hard-hit.

Hear them: "Many of the continent’s greatest cities, including Warsaw, London and Berlin, lay in ruins. The region’s economic structure was ruined, and millions had been made homeless. The general devastation of agriculture had led to conditions of near starvation in several parts of the continent, which was to be exacerbated by the particularly harsh winter of 1946 – 1947 in northwestern Europe.”

Especially damaged in the opinion of these analysts was transportation infrastructure, as railways, bridges, and docks, which had been heavily targeted by air strikes, while much merchant shipping had been sunk.

They recalled that although most small towns and villages in Western Europe had not suffered as much damage, the destruction of transportation left them economically isolated. "None of these problems could be easily remedied, as most nations engaged in the war had exhausted their treasuries in its execution.”

“The only major power whose infrastructure had not been significantly harmed in World War II was the united states. Its industrial base expanded rapidly during the war, so it was much bigger and stronger than in 1939. The war years had seen the fastest period of economic growth in the nation’s history, as American factories supported both its own war effort and that of its allies. By 1947 the industrial sector had retooled to produce consumer goods, stimulated by a boom in consumer spending. Exports were a small factor in the American economy; much of the Marshall Plan aid would be used by the Europeans to buy manufactured goods and raw materials from the United States.”

War historians further recalled that the United States was already spending a great deal to help Europe recover. "Over $14 billion was spent or loaned during the postwar period through the end of 1947. Much of this aid was designed to restore infrastructure and help refugees. Britain, for example, received an emergency loan of $3.75 billion. A number of bilateral aid agreements had been signed, notably the Truman Doctrine’s pledge to provide military assistance to Greece and Turkey.”

“The united nations also launched a series of humanitarian and relief efforts almost wholly funded by the United States. These efforts had important effects, but they lacked any central organization and planning, and failed to meet many of Europe’s more fundamental needs. Already in 1943, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was founded to provide relief to areas liberated from Axis powers after world war II. UNRRA provided billions of dollars of rehabilitation aid, and helped about 8 million refugees. It ceased operations in the DP camps of Europe in 1947; many of its functions were transferred to several UN agencies”. We will now proceed to read about the high casualty figures from the Yemeni war as regards the position of children.

abcnews.go.com reports that approximately 85,000 children under the age of 5 have died in Yemen from severe hunger since April 2015, according to a new report from Save the Children.

Using data gathered by the United Nations, Save the Children looked at the mortality rate of children under 5 years old who were treated for severe acute malnutrition and calculated that close to 85,000 of them have died between April 2015 and October 2018.

"Children are usually the most vulnerable in situations of famine or emergency food security and are particularly susceptible to malnutrition. Diseases easily pray upon their weakened immune systems," Tamer Kirolos, Yemen director for Save the Children, told ABC News in an email. He added that 5.2 million Yemenis children are at risk of famine.

"We cannot stand idly by and do nothing. The world needs to act," he said.

In a briefing in October, Mark Lowcock, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said nearly 14 million people in Yemen -- or about half of the country’s population -- are facing pre-famine conditions. However, a direct question to the United Nations is this: why watch on helplessly as war crimes are committed in Yemen?
Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, a former Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria has this to tell us about the implications of letting crimes against humanity go on.

He wrote that crimes against Humanity has eleven acts that qualify each crime as war crime and these are classified and criminalized as crimes against humanity.

Only murder, he however stated will be mentioned here.
His words: "For the purpose of the statute, ‘crime against humanity’ means the act of murder or causing death when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack. ‘Attack directed against any civilian population’ means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts such as murder, etc. referred to in Article 7(1) against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a state or organizational policy to commit such attack. That the policy could be that of a non-state actor is generally accepted. Such crimes can be perpetrated by terrorist groups, criminal gangs or groups or so-called ethnic militia."

The elements of the crime against humanity of murder are in the considered opinion of Ayoola who was once the Chief justice of Gambia are as follows: “The perpetrator killed one or more persons; the conducts was committed as part of widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population; the perpetrator knew that the conduct was part of or intended the conduct to be part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.”

Ayoola wrote further: “While international law has not yet begun to regulate conduct in internal strife, it is evident that with the principles now declared and with the prohibitions of crime against humanity as declared in the ICC Statute, it should now have been brought home to perpetrators of internal strife that there is a threshold of internationally tolerable conduct even in situations of internal strife beyond which international criminality starts.”

“In countries where civil strife is prevalent, there is much to be learnt about the salutary significance of the new international regime of criminal international law whose machinery is not hampered by those factors and considerations that weaken national judicial and law enforcement institutions, hamper them in their operations and hinder their resolve to be an instrument for the termination of impunity", Justice Ayoola noted.

The salutary significance of the aforementioned is that the main purpose of the expanding frontiers of justice is to ensure that those who bear the greatest responsibility for genocide and crimes against humanity are not only nationally made accountable, but also internationally accountable for their conduct.

Britain is a party to the Rome statute that created International Criminal Court but it is deeply involved in supplying weapons that are being put to use in the genocides going on in Yemen. The USA is not a party to the Rome treaty on ICC but parades about as the conscience of the international community and a big player in the Security Council of the United Nations. Why is America selling weapons to the repressive autocrat in Saudi Arabia who in turn deploys these weapons of mass destruction to kill of the babies of Yemen? The World must stop this cruelty against Yemeni babies. Enough of the war crimes.

 *Emmanuel Onwubiko is head of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and blogs @www.emmanuelonwubiko.com; www.huriwanigeria.com;www.huriwa.blogspot.com.

Offa robbery: Murder of Kingpin must be probed: - says HURIWA

A leading pro-democracy and Non-Governmental body – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned the secrecy surrounding the police handling of the suspected armed robbers that robbed banks recently in Offa, Kwara state and the murder of the kingpin – Michael Adikwu.

Besides, HURIWA has called for a comprehensive audits of the detention facilities of the Nigeria police force by a combined team of the United Nations special rapporteur on extralegal execution, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and credible pro-democracy organizations to take inventory of the human rights situations and the alleged high rate of police extralegal executions of suspects.

“We are shocked that since the suspected “Billionaire Kidnapper made the allegation before the Lagos state High Court that he was made by the police to witness extra judicial killings of ten suspects, the Nigerian central government and the National Human Rights Commission never bothered to immediately investigate this weighty allegation. We are worried that the Nigerian state has normalized extralegal killings by police and the widespread use of torture on suspects. These evil practices are antithetical to the human rights provisions enshrined in chapter 4 of the 1999 constitution which absolutely prohibits the use of torture and extralegal killings. We totally condemn this practice and particularly regard this current case as a litmus test for this government to either clear the air on the plot to politically manipulate the Offa robbery with the diabolical objective of forcing some of the suspects to implicate the number one political rival of the President. Why was it the principal character who reportedly exonerated the Senate President Dr Bukola Saraki from the crime that has now been murdered? This means directly that the Force headquarters has something to hide".

HURIWA specifically condemned the suspected murder in police detention facility of the principal suspect in the Offa robbery with the suspected plot by the police to politically implicate the senate president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in order to settle scores.

The Rights group expressed dismay that the handling of the Offa robbery case by the police has been marred by political manipulations and sinister plots to rope in the major political rival of the president who is the appointing authority of the Inspector General of Police.

HURIWA said apart from the high powered audits of all police detention centers by high profile team to be drawn from the United Nations and Nigeria, the Kwara state government should constitute a judicial commission of inquiry to ascertain the circumstances leading to the suspected murder of the principal suspect in the Offa robbery to unravel the alleged plot to rope in the holder of the office of the Senate president.

HURIWA recalled that a dismissed police constable, who is a principal suspect in the Offa bank robbery, Michael Adikwu, is dead.

HURIWA recalled that the  Kwara State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice,  Mr. Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN), disclosed this at a Kwara State High Court on Wednesday when five of the six suspects were brought to court for arraignment.

The five suspects brought before the court were Ayoade Akinnibosun, Ibikunle Ogunleye, Adeola Abraham, Salaudeen Azeez and Niyi Ogundiran.

However, Michael Adikwu, who was said to have confessed to being the mastermind of the bloody operation, was not in court during the arraignment.

Boko Haram: Leave Amnesty International alone and fight terrorists-: HURIWA *Stop Playing Politics-: HURIWA TO SERVICE CHIEFS:

A prominent civil society organization – HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has charged the Military authority to spend more time working and implementing effective combat measures against the resurging armed terrorists rather than seek to divert attention by hiring phantom groups to attack Amnesty international and using productive time chasing shadows.

The Rights group has also called for adequate funding and transparent use of the public fund to procure better fighting weapons to check the sudden resurgence of boko haram terrorists and the killings of many soldiers and civilians in the North East of Nigeria.

In a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA condemned the participation by service chiefs of the inaugural political campaign by the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The group said their presence smacks of partisanship and may significant lead to erosion of trust regarding the integrity of the electoral process. HURIWA why military chiefs who ought to be thoroughly professional have decided to play divisive politics at the detriment of the statutory place of the military.

The Rights group rejected as infantile and laughable the explanation offered by the presidency for the gaffe by the service chiefs that they unknowingly attended the event just as the Rights group said if the excuse by the presidency is correct and anything to go by, it then portends danger because it means that our national security is endangered if service chiefs in their entirety without exception can saunter into an event without prior invitation or prior intelligence. HURIWA stated that the excuse is the surest reason to immediately sack them and appoint professionally competent service chiefs who would have effective intelligence at their beck and call and would not operate casually like jobless people looking for a venue to unwind.

“How do we rely on such Generals to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria effectively and efficiently if they lack simple intelligence about the nature of a meeting that they attended in the same venue that they often visit to brief the commander-in-chief? This lie is undone and not adequately cooked by those who fabricated it at the state house in Abuja which is the same place they told Nigerians that some invading rodents chased President Muhammadu Buhari from his office.”

“The action of the serving military officers heading sensitive constitutional offices attending a political campaign of one of the candidates amongst over 70 others, is unpardonable and is capable of and indeed has affected the credibility, impartiality and integrity of those institutions under their leadership especially as Nigeria prepares for the make or mar national election in only about few weeks time.”

 HURIWA relatedly lamented that the security chiefs are spending resources and time attacking credible local and international bodies such as Amnesty International, just as HURIWA has also tasked the military chiefs to change their combat strategies since the counter terror war is not producing meaningful results.

The Rights group said it was regrettable that whilst the Defence headquarters sits back comfortably in the air-conditioned office complex in Abuja attacking Amnesty International over reports of human rights violations by soldiers, the combatants who are reportedly not well equipped and motivated are been reportedly and mercilessly slaughtered by armed Islamists in the North East.

HURIWA said every right thinking patriot in Nigeria should be worried that Boko Haram has killed 44 soldiers and nine farmers in three days of attacks on some villages in Borno State as reported by AFP.

HURIWA said it has become necessary for a change of tactics since according to the report, which quoted security sources, the Islamic State West Africa Province, a Boko Haram splinter group, killed at least 44 soldiers in attacks on three military bases at the weekend.

“We read with consternation that that out of the 44 soldiers, no fewer than 43 were killed on Sunday in Metele, a remote village near the Nigerian border with Niger, according to a military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity."

HURIWA recalled that a military officer stated, “Our troops were completely routed and the terrorists captured the base after heavy fighting,” adding that the base commander and three officers were among the dead.

HURIWA faulted the press conference in which the Acting Director of Defence Information, Brigadier-General John Agim, alleged that the Amnesty International had designed counter-productive plans to frustrate the war by recycling old reports even as the Defence spokesman claimed: “If you read reports of Amnesty International, the one they have started publishing this year is what happened in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and they recycle it every month. So, when you will see their reports, you will think the security agents have done something new. But if you take time to profile the reports, you will discover that they are repeating the same thing.”

HURIWA tasked the military to face their duties and welcome constructive criticism with open minds and make amends so as to become a thoroughly respected military institution in Africa and a reference point in the World.

2019: Centrality of Rule of Law By Emmanuel Onwubiko

The ongoing campaign season will not be complete without an animated debate around the centrality of the theme of adherence of government officials to the principle and practice of rule of law. A conversation around the issues of rule of law is so central to the election because a constitutional democracy without the adherence of all citizens to the PRIMACY OF THE RULE OF LAW is like a fish expecting to survive outside of water. I recalled vividly in my 100 level Philosophy class whereby we encountered the earliest fathers of philosophy and their inquiries on the essence or the central form of life. One of these philosophers by name Thales devoted substantial academic time to argue that all Beings evolved from water. In the same vein it won't be out of place to say that all democracies evolved from the Constitution which is universally called the grund norm.  Professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt who recently wrote a classic called "How Democracies Die", made it clear that democracy is dead if the nation is ruled by a strong man who is strong enough to undermine the institutions of democracy such as the Judiciary, the legislature. Professor John Keane who earlier did a voluminous work called " The Life and Death of Democracy" is in agreement that there is no constitutional democracy without the Primacy of the Law. 

The reason for the above affirmation that the central theme of the ongoing political campaign should be a question on the place and essence of rule of law is not farfetched given that constitutional democracy would remain a mirage if the principle of rule of law is not the central theme that binds all those who hold one office or the other in all levels of government together. Respect for the Rule of law is assumed to be 'the be- all and end -all' in all constitutional democracies.  Nigeria is not an exception. 

Another reason to demand that those who seek for elective offices in the coming elections of 2019 must render comprehensive account of how each of them intends to respect, the principle of rule of law is because of the lack of commitment on the part of president Muhammadu Buhari to subscribe absolutely to the primacy of rule of law. Shamefully, the President is surrounded by senior lawyers who lack the courage of conviction to call their boss to order. The Vice President Mr. Yemi Osinbanjo before running for elective office was the Attorney General of Lagos state. Lagos state has the most vibrant judiciary in the entire federation. The failure of President Muhammadu Buhari to obey some court judgments is therefore one of the most disturbing causes of grandscale impunity that have been seen in all parts of Nigeria including the fact that the Minister of Defence was seen defending mass murderers who are armed Fulani killer gangs. 

The minister justified these atrocities on the ground that the cause of the violence unleashed by armed Fulani herdsmen was because of a law in some North Central States prohibiting public grazing of cows and also because of the blocking of the so called grazing routes. Because the head is rotten literally, the Defence Minister made this illegal remarks because his boss disregards rule of law and nothing has happened to either the government official nor to the killer gangs belonging to Fulani herdsmen who have killed over 6,000 farmers in North Central Nigeria made up largely of Christians.

In the light of the above, it is essential to state that the fundamental deficit of the current administration is the notoriety it has garnered as an administration that picks and choses which binding judgments of courts of competent jurisdiction it should comply and which it would ridicule with naked impunity. Section 6 of the constitution gives the judicial powers of the federation to the courts of competent jurisdiction. But Muhammadu Buhari thinks he is bigger than the law or so it seems drawing from his antecedents in his current office. 

Two key cases are the celebrated bails granted by different divisions of the Federal High Court to both the detained leader of the Islamic movement of Nigeria Sheikh Ibraheem Elzackzacky and his wife and the immediate past national security adviser Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd). 

Each of these citizens have spent three years in illegal detention. A journalist from Bayelsa was kept by the Department for State services in underground cell for over two years. He was only recently freed by the Chief magistrate court Abuja only after the Director General of Department of state services who committed numerous atrocities against the constitution Lawal Daura was removed by then acting President when his cup of iniquity became full. 

He was indicted for sending 100 armed hooded DSS operatives to invade the National Assembly and for a whole day held the legislators hostage in an attempt to unseat the leadership of the National Assembly who had planned to decamp from the All Progressives Congress to the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party. He and those who carried out the unconstitutional takeover of a part of government have yet to be prosecuted. 

These and many more failures to activate constitutional mechanisms to punish violators of the rule of law in government has made a national conversation on the readiness of the Presidential candidates to abide by the principle of rule of law very imperative.

Also, the disdain demonstrated by President Muhammadu Buhari towards the principle of rule of law became a national embarrassment when the (Muhammadu Buhari) openly disputed the primacy of rule of law but elevated what he calls national security interest far and above the rule of law. Lawyers and lovers of constitutional democracy immediately lampooned the President. 

Sadly, the habitual disregard for courts’ judgments by president Muhammadu Buhari has taken a global dimension when the international media reported a former British cabinet level Minister of raising alarm that Nigeria as it is under the current dispensation is not good for business simply because president Buhari has no respect for rule of law.

A former Secretary of State for International Development of the United Kingdom, Priti Patel, warned investors to be wary of investing in Nigeria.

In an op-ed for City A.M., Patel, who is a member of the British parliament, claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari was not in the habit of obeying law and court orders.

Patel cited the case of a firm owned by two Irishmen, which got a contract in Nigeria in 2010, adding that Buhari, upon assuming office in 2015, cancelled the contract.

Patel claimed that the firm’s efforts to get compensation through the court were also frustrated as Buhari refused to obey court decisions made in favour of the foreign firm.

Patel said, “In Nigeria, the unhappy experience of the firm founded by two Irishmen, Process and Industrial Development, is a case in point, and demonstrates the risk that businesses will face in Nigeria.

“In 2010, P&ID signed a 20-year contract with the Nigerian government to create a new natural gas development refinery, but the project fell through after the Nigerian government reneged on its contractual commitments.

“Upon taking office, President Buhari promptly cancelled a compensation settlement.

“Since Buhari reneged on this deal, P&ID has undertaken legal efforts to affirm a tribunal award, first decided in London. It also made several attempts in court to force the Nigerian government to respect its obligations.

“The most recent court decision at a London tribunal confirmed that the Nigerian government owes P&ID almost $9bn for the initial breach of contract, loss of income, additional costs, and interest accrued after five years of non-payment.

“However, the Nigerian government has continued to flout international law and convention, and it refuses to respect the various court decisions.

“Investors must consider this long-running scandal and weigh this obstinacy against Nigeria’s mishandled economic potential.”

The Briton added thus: “Nigeria is ranked 145th in the world for its ease of doing business, which demonstrates the risks of investment into Nigeria.” This statement of fact by this foreigner has however become a political point of warfare by politicians of divergent parties even as the Spokesman of the President has as usual spoken in defence of government even without recourse to the empirical data alluded to by this British legislator.

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party said it was unfortunate that Buhari had given the country bad image abroad, with his alleged penchant for disobeying court orders.

A presidency source said Patel’s claims were being analyzed by government. 

However, another Presidency official even without thinking decided to criticize the Briton for stating what is completely truthful.  

The Presidency described Patel warning as “lacking in substance and devoid of merit in empirical evidence established by facts.”

The President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, in a statement said, “Her claim is a fabrication that cannot be supported by the facts on the ground.”

“Nigerian has recognized the rights of investors, both local and foreign, as enshrined in our constitution, which states clearly that no investment can be taken from its owners without recourse to the law. Given the constitution, you don’t even need international protection for assets held in this country.

“Beyond this, we have established a proper climate of investment on account of which, the nation has gained 24 points of excellence in the global ease of doing business index.”

But even an infant in Nigeria knows that the current government has serious challenge with respecting rule of law. Many patriotic Nigerians and groups have demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari change from his bad posture of disrespecting the rule of law. The Christian Association of Nigeria the other day told the President to his face that he is a serial violator of rule of law. Professor Wole Soyinka says the persistent violations of rule of law by President Muhammadu Buhari constitutes a huge international embarrassment. President Donald Trump queried President Muhammadu Buhari during a state visit to the White house in Washington dc that there are thousands of killings of Christians that Buhari has failed to bring the killers to justice. The Chief justice of Nigeria has also added his voice to the long list of those condemning the violations of rule of law by President Muhammadu Buhari and his officials including his Attorney general and minister of justice. It is a consensus opinion that any government that refuses to respect the law is a dictator. In the year 2007, a famous justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria Niki Tobi graphically called a government that fails to respect the law as enemy of democracy.

His words: “A Government in a democracy which fails or refuses to obey court orders and judgments is not a friend to democracy but rather a foe. Such a Government is working at cross purpose with democracy. It is not a civilized government capable of functioning in the 21^st century Nigeria operating a vibrant democracy. Such a Government has desecrated democracy and pushed it to the mud. Let no Government behave in that way."

Niki Tobi praised the then government of President Olusegun Obasanjo for respecting the rule of law thus:  "I should however mention here to close this short paper that the attitude of the present Federal Government in this matter of obedience of court orders and judgments is one in the right direction. Immediately the Supreme Court delivered the judgment in Obi v. INEC, the President instructed the Solicitor-General of the Federation and the Acting Inspector-General of Police to implement the decision. That was done and Mr. Peter Obi commenced from where he stopped as Governor of Anambra State. That is most commendable and we do hope that State Governments will follow the good example of a servant leader."

Tobi then stated that: "It is also our hope that the Federal Government will sustain or maintain the tempo. Of course, Nigerians will cry to the roof top if there is a deviation in policy in this matter. It is our hope that such a day will elude our cherished democracy forever.” (NIKI TOBI, CON).

It is therefore imperative for Nigerians to cry to the roof tops over the many breaches of the rule of law by the current government and to use the opportunity of the campaigns to demand full disclosures from the candidates on their blueprint for elevation of respect to the rule of law to the rightful place and making this practice the primacy of the modus operandi and modus vivendi of the government that would assume office by next May 29th 2019 after the forthcoming election. 

*Emmanuel Onwubiko is head of Human rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and blogs @  www.emmanuelonwubiko.com; www.huriwanigeria.com;www.huriwa.blogspot.com.

Police as enemy of the law By Emmanuel Onwubiko

Let me confess that even amongst the several cases of gross irresponsibility on the part of a whole lot of police operatives and officers in Nigeria, there are a sprinkling of very efficient and disciplined officers. I must say that i was fascinated to read that a serving deputy Vice Chancellor of one of the very good private universities who is a female Professor recently got enlisted in the Nigeria Police force with the singular mandate to change the bad image of the policing institution. My best wishes are with her. I'm starting on these good notes as a direct response to an allegations made in private against me by a serving police operative in Enugu about what she described as my absolute hatred of the Nigeria Police force. This police lady is one amongst the over two dozen serving police operatives who are my social media friends. I will now proceed to make my observations about the police and these observations are influenced by the action of the Chief justice of Nigeria and the recent reported upsurge in police extra judicial killings of innocent Nigerians. I must say that the confession in the Lagos High court recently by the alleged billionaire kidnapper that he was forced to witness police extra-legal killings inside police custody of ten suspected criminals is compelling enough.  

Now here is my view on how the law enforcement agents have. Practically become enemies of the law. It was precisely two months ago today, that the usually taciturn and media shy Chief Justice of Nigeria did the unthinkable. 

I said unthinkable because it was the first time that such a weighty pronouncement about Nigeria police’s gross disrespect of the law was made by Nigeria’s Chief of Justice dispensation.

This is because virtually all previous holders of the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria were just conservatively concerned about the conducts of judges in the temple of Justice without ever thinking of the larger implication of having a policing institution whose operatives are consistently rated by global rights monitoring bodies as the worst violator of human rights. Amnesty international; Human rights watch and the United Nations Human Rights Council have all condemned the Nigeria Police force. 

The current Chief Justice of Nigeria who however is very slow in ridding out corrupt practices amongst the rank of serving judges, has however taking the bull by the horn by setting up a monitoring mechanism for fishing out police detention facilities whereby the rights of ordinary citizens are violated with reckless abandon. 

Just before I dwell extensively on the new steps adopted by the Chief Justice of Nigeria to eradicate or reduce cases of police violations of citizens’ rights, let me say that the current Chief Justice is needed and hereby tasked to speed up pending petitions against judges.

Having said that regarding the snail speed of the wheel of Justice within the National Judicial Council (NJC), let me return to applaud the Chief Justice of Nigeria for putting in place pragmatic steps to stamp out habitual abuses of human rights of Nigerians who are in conflict with the Nigerian laws.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, asked the courts to take proactive steps to curb the menace of abuse of power by the police. According to him, “I have observed, and received several complaints of the horrific incidents of Police brutality, inordinate arrest, detention and extortion of innocent Nigerians by police officers across the country. These incidents have assumed frightening proportions in recent times. The Magistrate Courts are currently overwhelmed with cases of such brutality, inordinate arrests and detention of Citizens.” He continues: “As we approach election year, it is imperative that we curb these excesses through the instrumentality of the statutory powers of the courts. The Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) has given Magistrates oversight functions over Police Stations in their Jurisdictions.”

The judiciary is wading in because neither the police authorities, who are hugely distracted and stuck in Neanderthal forms of policing under a unitary system, nor the federal government, which is reluctant to give up its powers of policing and yet is unable to fund or restructure the Police Force, has proved competent in doing anything proactive about the law enforcement agency. They are satisfied reacting to cases of abuse, hauling a few erring policemen before their ineffective internal disciplinary mechanisms, and enunciating cosmetic changes. The rot is so overwhelming that it is hard not to see the tragedy the law enforcement agency has become. These were the considered opinions reported by The Nation Newspapers. 

The paper stated further that It is not certain that the judicial intervention advocated by the CJN will go very far. It is worth trying, of course, and the principle of the intervention must be saluted. But the rot is much deeper than what the judiciary can fix, and the structure of policing so archaic that no amount of tinkering can do it any good. It is perhaps only the federal government, particularly the presidency that still lauds unitary policing. They fear that state police would be abused by autocratic governors. They do not think state police can be structured in such a way that safeguards can be built into it. Paralyzed by fear, too mendicant to fund the law enforcement agency, and too lazy to even supervise it well and build a disciplined and innovative crime fighting force, the federal government has allowed the Force to decay into a brutish and extortionate agency.

Nation newspaper reported further that the police, like the herdsmen killings, should be a major campaign issue for the next general elections. Political parties which hope to win popular votes must discuss this grave issue and convince the electorate that they have great and implementable plans to give the country a new Police Force. Nothing else will suffice. It is time political parties earned, rather than buy, their votes.

This writer hereby affirm that the indignation of the Chief Justice of Nigeria against the operatives of the police is understandable given the history of the notoriety of operatives of this policing institution over the several years.

Not long ago, the then governing council Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission Professor Chidi Odinkalu had a brush with the Inspector General of Police leading to his invitation for questioning over some findings he made.

Odinkalu had penned an article in which he reeled out statistical data of the high number of Nigerians who had been killed by the police in their detention facilities over the years.

Odinkalu’s allegations, came exactly few years after the then serving special Rapporteur on extra judicial killings at the United Nations similarly indicted the police.

The truth is that, the Nigeria police Force is sick both on the head and body and this adverse outlook of the operatives of the police must be curbed if this country will ever have the hope of truly becoming civil, humane and the holders of political authorities made to adhere strictly to the letters of the law.

A fact that is undeniable is the fundamental problems afflicting the police from both the structural and personnel dimension just as it is practically impossible for Nigerians to ever witness real and genuine constitutional democracy should we keep becoming very comfortable with these twin evils embedded within the Nigeria police force.

In terms of structure, there is the need to legally redirect and refocus the policing institution so the operatives and officers play the role of public servants of the law who ought to enforce the rule of law. The way the Nigeria police force is structured, it has continued to maintain the frame of mind of a force armed by the state to serve the interest of the political class.

There is the need to decolonize the psyche of the police and refocus its operational guidelines to reflect the necessity of first and foremost remaining true to their professional calling by adhering strictly to the laws of Nigeria and not to basically operate on the whims and caprices of the temporary wielders of political power. Restructuring and reforming the police is imperative as a way of making the members responsive, proactive and to legally made to become professionally competent.

There is the urgency of the now for the police in Nigeria to be modeled after the policing institutions of such places as the United Kingdom and the United States of America. 

Creating state and local policing structures is therefore one sure way of infusing professional competences and compelling the operatives to behave rightly and not wait to be reminded by the nation’s Chief Justice about her duties to the laws and to human rights.

The second and perhaps the most fundamental panacea is to put the right kinds of persons to enlist and manage the policing institutions at all levels.

It is strategic that the enabling law is put in place to ensure that appointments into the policing institutions are on the grounds of merits and competences just as the thorough background screenings of potential police operatives are verified. For now there are no effective mechanisms of knowing when armed robbers are recruited into the Nigeria Police force. 

As I read and reflected deeply on the steps announced by the Chief Justice of Nigeria to enforce the atmosphere of respect for the Nigerian laws by the police, I do also think that embarking on comprehensive reforms of the police is key and very urgent to abort any possible revolution by the distressed citizenry who are already getting fed up by the monumental cases of violations of the rights of the citizens of Nigeria by the police. It is unheard of that the policing institution funded by the public will continue to harbour operatives with scant respect for the rights of citizens and therefore compelled to honour and respect the laws of Nigeria. 

For instance, on the same day that the Chief Justice of Nigeria literary passed a vote of no confidence on the police, two young girls were killed in the streets of Abuja by some trigger happy rogue police operatives.

One of the two was a girl who was to pass out of the National Youth Service scheme in another twenty four hours even as the second was the daughter of Nigeria’s former Finance Minister who had just returned from abroad. The first was a 23-year-old NYSC participant Miss Linda Angela Igwetu killed by a police operative called Benjamin Peters. The second casualty of police extralegal killing was the 23-year-old Miss Anita Akapson the daughter of Mrs. Nenadi Usman from Kaduna who served Nigeria as Finance minister. 

It was also during the same period that even the executive arm of federal government reportedly took some cosmetic steps to rein in rogue operatives of the police when the then acting president professor Yemi Osinbanjo announced the unbundling of the special anti-robbery squad of the Inspector General of Police.

As I write, the National Human Rights Commission is investigating huge allegations of human rights violations by SARS of the Nigeria police force.

But there are clear indications that these steps by both the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the executive arm of government to reform the police are at best cosmetic and not far reaching.

This is because no matter what fire brigade approach that is adopted to bring about a turnaround of the police without far reaching legal reforms of the legal frameworks on the police, nothing substantial would be achieved. The Nigeria police force needs legal unbundling even as all the bad eggs that inflicted spectacular image damage to the police must be prosecuted and punished. Nigeria should demand a twenty yearlong forensic financial audits of the police to ascertain why over 90 percent of police facilities in Nigeria have long deteriorated in value and standards. Today police barracks are filthy, smelly and decrepit. Lots of police operatives work under suffocating atmospheres and operate from extensively damaged office complexes. Police training schools are ill equipped and operatives are taxed to buy their uniforms. Citizens bear the brunts of these institutional neglects. This is why the ordinary citizens are charged for all manner of services by the police. 

We must demand to know why victims of crime in Nigeria are fleeced and extorted of their hard earned money by the police when these crimes are reported to the police. I am aware of a certain fresh case of alleged murder in which the survivors abandoned the case because the police in Lagos kept pestering the family to fund the investigations. Another case of domestic violence which led to the killing of a young housewife from Arondizuogu in her home by her Anambra state born Lagos based businessman was undermined when the suspected killer bribed the Lagos police command to halt investigations. There are thousands of cases of crimes of murders abandoned by the victims and their families because they can't afford the high 'service charges' illegally demanded from them by the respective police commissioners. What Fela Anikulapo Kuti sang many years ago that police stations are like banks with DPOs becoming bank mangers has started happening before our very eyes.

Why on Earth will Nigeria expect efficient policing when the operatives are most times given targets like banks by their operational heads and are daily expected to make returns to the Divisional Police Officers and the Commissioners?

A serving senator from Bauchi state who was a senior police officer accused the current hierarchy of police of huge fraud from proceeds the police collect from rich Nigerians for their services, but the President kept inconvenient silence. Today we read that police aircraft delivered bags of cash to the APC candidate in a Kwara state re-run poll that will happen tomorrow so he could bribe voters. 

The other day in Imo state, I ran into some shabbily dressed police operatives bearing arms that looked like the types carried by hunters and these rogue police in Okwelle were overheard threatening to kill a commercial bus driver who refused to bribe them with a little less than N100. Many innocent persons are killed and their money robbed by police. 

At every levels, you notice that police operatives have abandoned their core task and most of their bosses are only concerned about going about with the elite and even foreign business executives who are willing to meet their inordinate demands for payments. Again, because violent crime is rife, most wealthy persons pay security fees to police commissioners or they would be kidnapped if they default.

We must return the police operatives to refocus on their core duties of enforcement of the rule of law and instilling order and sanity in Nigeria.

This is what a very friendly writer wrote about the duty, powers and limitations of the Nigeria police.

He wrote thus: “A duty is said to exists when there is an obligation to act in a certain way. For example a Muslim has a duty to say the Jumat prayers; a person is under a duty to tolerate the views of another or others. Also one has a duty to keep promises voluntarily made by him. However, in this discussion we are not concerned with these types of duties. We are not concerned with religious, social or moral duties which the above examples respectively represent. We are concerned with legal duty under which the police found themselves."

"A legal duty is an obligation which the law places on a body for which the law has given powers (i.e. tools for carrying out the duties) to that body to carry out that obligation for the common good of the state. Thus when we speak of being under a legal duty what we are consciously or unconsciously saying is that there is a force (i.e. a law) compelling us to act in a certain way. We are bound to act in that certain way, we are charged by law to act in that way, we are under an obligation to act in that way, we are “bound” by that obligation. The word obligation is derived from the Latin expression ob-ligare. Ligare means to bind. Thus when we talk about the duties of the police, what we are talking about consciously or otherwise is the obligation the law has placed on them to act in certain ways in certain circumstances for which powers have been given to them by the law." 

Accordingly the police Act provides as follows: “The Police shall be employed for the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offender, preservation of law and order, the protection of life and property and the due enforcement of all laws and regulations with which they are directly charged and shall perform such military duties within or without Nigeria as may be required of them by, or under the authority of, this or any other act” (From the book “Nigeria Police, Duties, Powers and Limitations” by Basil Momodu).

The Nigeria police of today are in substantial violations of these statutory duties. This is the time to call them to order. 

*Emmanuel Onwubiko is head of Human rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and blogs @ www.emmanuelonwubiko.com; www.huriwanigeria.com; www.huriwa.blogspot.com.