Immediate past president of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA,
Barr. Okey Wali (SAN) kidnapped in Port Harcourt over the weekend
Disturbed by the
worrying dimension that armed kidnappings for ransom has taken, the Human
Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has charged President Goodluck Jonathan,
the leadership of the National Assembly, and state governors especially the
southern states, to immediately adopt swift, decisive and intelligence-driven
mechanisms to end what the group termed “vicious crime circle”, as well as
initiate effective deterrent legal frameworks aimed at imposing stiff sanctions
on kidnappers.
The rights group
spoke against the backdrop of the kidnapping by unknown gunmen of the immediate
past President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Barr. Okey Wali (SAN)
weekend, condemning the action and describing it as “outrageous and a serious
affront on the law enforcement agencies of both the Rivers State and the
Federal Government of Nigeria,” even as it appealed to the kidnappers to set
him free unconditionally going by the pro-democracy tendencies of Mr. Okey Wali
who used his two years spell as the national leader of the over 400,000 strong
membership platform to champion the interest of the deprived and the oppressed
in the society.
“We urge the
kidnappers of the former National President of the Nigerian Bar Association Mr.
Okey Wali to set him free because he is not even among the ten top richest
lawyers some of whom have bought choice exotic private jets with the proceeds
of their legitimate representation of political litigants since 1999 till
date.
“Okey Wali is simply
a struggling senior lawyer with conscience who has conscientiously fought on
the side of the oppressed and the deprived in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Those who kidnapped him have misfired because they went for the wrong person
and indeed nobody is the right person to be so kidnapped since kidnapping is a
very grave crime.
“We urge the Federal
Government and the Rivers State government to do everything within their powers
to rescue this gentleman from the den of the men of the underworld and to also
implement measures to check the proliferation of small arms and weapons which
fuel kidnappings,” HURIWA said in a statement to the media and signed jointly
by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media
Affairs Director, Miss. Zainab Yusuf.
HURIWA warned that
should armed kidnappings be consistently tackled with kid gloves as is
currently happening, then the coming general elections which is sure to become
the most hotly contested in the political annals of Nigeria, could see a
phenomenal growth in armed and violent kidnappings since rival, deeply divided
and power hungry politicians can now have their way.
“Nigerian government
must tackle this menace now before it becomes one giant crime phenomenon that
would jeopardise the sanctity and security of the coming general elections in
Nigeria,” the group stressed.
The rights group
particularly queried the rationale for allowing armed kidnappings to fester in
most parts of Southern Nigeria over the last two years with the possible
exception of Anambra State whereby the previous and current administrations
have adopted demonstrably qualitative measures to confront frontally the men of
the underworld perpetrating the evil acts of kidnappings.
Stressing that,
“Kidnappings are extraordinary crimes that demand extraordinary measures to
check and minimize,” HURIWA therefore charged the governors and state houses of
assemblies of the Southern States to borrow a leaf from the current
administration of Governor Willy Obiano of Anambra State who recently acquired
state-of-the-art crime fighting facilities to tackle the challenges posed by
kidnappers and other underworld kingpins.
The pro-democracy
rights group further blamed the hierarchy of the national and state assemblies
for abandoning their people by not effectively passing strong deterrent
legislations against the grave crime of armed kidnappings which should include
making armed kidnappings a capital offence punishable by the death penalty just
as the rights group stated that the criminal code and other statutes in
operation in all parts of the country needed to be fundamentally amended to
classify kidnappings as a grave crime against humanity just like terrorism.
It lamented that the National Assembly in the last four years has
failed to amend the relevant provisions of the constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria of 1999 [as amended] to reflect new provisions
concerning the establishment of state, local and municipal police
structures all across Nigeria.
www.factfinders.com.ng
14 Oct. 2014.
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