A Human Rights Lawyer, Barrister Gloria Ballason has described the late Dr Obadiah Mailafia, former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria as an extraordinary human.
In a soul touching tribute, the advocate of justice and good governance said Mailafia has ascended to the heavens where servants of God reside forever.
The tribute reads;
“For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep.”
My dearest O.M., now that was a courageous life! You put it all out there – heart, soul, sweat, blood, faith, excellence… everything! What a life of extraordinary commitment, brilliance, intelligence and then some more.
Like the patriarchs gone before us, you chose to share and stand against the sufferings of the innocent rather than the fleeting pleasures and corruptible treasures of this earth. Like David you have served the purpose of God for your generation and have now fallen…asleep.
You will now ascend to the place where kings, paupers, victors, villains, tyrants …all go! But in your case, there is a clear difference:
You are going home to a city whose builder and maker is the Just one. A Book will be opened and you will see the record of every act of sacrifice and your golden acts of courage and convictions against injustice.
You will stand before the Righteous Judge O.M. and having listened intently to your wife about your last moments, I know you will stand unashamed.
So let me thank you for the invaluable gift of your friendship and for obeying the Creation mandate to be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth for indeed, you are leaving behind a more replenished world than you met it. You have left behind in your mortal body indelible marks and our generations will follow in them and the trail of the dust you leave behind.
Your works as a peerless international civil servant, ivy league scholar, writer of writers, advocate of truth, lifetime pursuer of excellence will continue to light and inspire us. WE WILL NOT STOP until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a never failing stream.
Lokaci ya kai. Dr. Obadiah Mailafia , ka sauka lafiya ka kuma idar min da sakon gaisuwa da alheri ga mahaifi na, my beloved dad who left five days before you and who I am sure will show you round those golden streets.
Goodbye dearest big brother, friend, mentor and kindred spirit. I will see you on some bright and cloudless morning. Thank you OM. THANK YOU!!!
Prominent pro-democracy and Civil Rights Advocacy Group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has carpeted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for lying that it never invaded the Maitama home of the Supreme Court of Nigeria Justice Mrs. Mary Odili for over 5 hours.
The Rights group said telling lie about the exercise in which EFCC participated as disclosed by report from the Chief magistrate court makes the EFCC a tool for political WITCH-HUNT. HURIWA also condemns the federal ministry of justice for cooking up lies which deceived the Chief magistrate in Abuja to issue a search warrant at the home of the reverred jurist of the highest court in the land. HURIWA wonders why this federal government has continued to embarass, harass, intimidate and torture justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria by using armed security forces to invade their privacy with the aim of getting them to become afraid and to do the bidding of the executive arm of government.
In a media statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) condemns the raid on the premises of the Supreme Court’s Justice Mrs. Mary Odili whose husband, former Rivers State’s governor Mr. Peter Odili belonged to the main opposition political party- Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and who had only just defeated the Nigerian Immigration Service in the competent court of law and retrieved his international travelling document which was seized at the International Airport Abuja.
Reacting to the news of the siege at the home of Supreme Court Justice Mary Odili the Rights group said it was unfortunate that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has become a full blown dictatorship going by the patterns of horrendous attacks of persons perceived as not pliable or amenable to be used as instruments of vendetta and political witch hunt.
The Rights group said Mrs. Mary Odili may have been targeted not just for being the wife of a prominent elder of the main opposition political party of the Peoples Democratic Party but most likely because of her consistency in giving sound, qualitative, merit and law based judgments at the Supreme Court of Nigeria particularly in some cases that the ruling All Progressive Congress may have vested interest.
“We think the military invasion was aimed at harassing her into playing the role of the good puppet of the President because the officials of the Federal government are aware of her pedigree and her reputation as a no nonsense judge who renders judgement based on facts, evidence and the laws “, HURIWA affirmed.
Besides, HURIWA condemns the federal government for authorising the raid and the dangerous siege at the home of the reverred jurist of the highest court in the land going by the disclosure made by the Chief magistrate in Abuja to the effect that the Justice ministry in Abuja lied to obtain a search warrant which the armed agencies relied upon to collectively invade the home of the Supreme Court Justice in Maitama Abuja and interrupted the free flow of traffic of hundreds of Nigerians.
Citing media report, HURIWA recalled that a Chief Magistrates’ Court had revoked a search warrant granted to the Joint Panel Recovery unit of the Federal Ministry of Justice to search the home of Supreme Court Justice Mary Odili.
HURIWA recalled that the panel, which comprises the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigeria Police Force and the Ministry of Justice, had obtained a search warrant from the magistrates’ court after a so called whistleblower, Aliyu Umar, claimed to have observed illegal activities going on at No. 9, Imo Street, Maitama, Abuja.
Umar’s affidavit dated October 13, 2021, read in part, “I have observed some illegal activities going on in those houses within Abuja are illegal and hereby report the said matter to the law enforcement agency. “I hereby state that all information provided by me to the EFCC is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.” in a second affidavit deposed to by a senior police officer, CSP Lawrence Ajodo, the panel applied to the chief magistrate in Abuja seeking a search warrant to search the house.
HURIWA recalled that the Chief Magistrate, Emmanuel Iyanna, who subsequently approved the search warrant on October 29, 2021 later revoked it claiming that the Applicants for the search warrants deceived him into issuing the search warrants going by what he termed misrepresentation.
Similarly, HURIWA condemned the EFCC who through its spokesman, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said, in a statement, that the commission had no hand in the matter and advised members of the public to disregard any news to the contrary.
The statement read in part, “The attention the EFCC has been drawn to claims in a section of the media that operatives of the commission today, October 29, 2021 stormed the Maitama, Abuja home of a Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Mary Odili, purportedly to execute a search.
“The commission, by this statement, wishes to inform the public that the report is false as it did not carry out any operation at the home of Justice Odili. If there was any such operation as claimed by the media, it was not carried out by the EFCC. The commission enjoins the public to discountenance the report.”
HURIWA has therefore called on the EFCC to apologise publicly to Nigerians for lying that it never participated in the raid because the information made available to the Nigerian public from the Chief magistrate shows otherwise that the EFCC was in the team of armed security invaders of the home of Justice Mary Odili.
HURIWA is therefore demanding that strong sanctions are slammed on the individuals who lied under oath to obtain by trick the search warrant that the armed team relied on to invade the premises of the Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria just as the Rights group said if the Federal government fails to charge for perjury the persons who got the search warrant on the basis of falsehood, it will then become notorious that we now have a bunch of persons in the Federal Government who are not only professional liars but are persons who are totally unfit to occupy any position of responsibility in the twenty first century Nigeria.
Says military action in Imo State community may constitute a war crime
The Governments of the United States of America and Nigeria have been applauded for including a clause banning the use of the newly acquired American built Tucano Jets in any military operations in the South East of Nigeria against agitators of self determination just as the Rights group has asked the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (Ipob) not to carry out adversarial actions such as boycott of the Anambra governorship election by invoking a one week sit-at-home protest. HURIWA said any action that would derail the conduct of the Anambra governorship election is not in the best interest of the South East of Nigeria but is the evil wish of the enemies of Ndigbo.
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA ( HURIWA) a prominent Civil society and pro-democracy group has called on the Chief of Army Lieutenant General Yahaya Faruk to stop forthwith the adversarial and bloody violence unleashed on many Igbo communities by the Nigerian Army operatives currently on internal security operations in the Southern Nigeria just as HURIWA said military invasions of Communities in Imo State which have resulted in many extrajudicial killings and organised and coordinated burning down of communities by armed operatives of the Nigerian Army. HURIWA has tasked the Imo State governor Mr Hope Uzodinma to go beyond just weeping openly at the scenes of military attacks on innocent Imo communities but should ensure that indicted armed operatives are sanctioned using extant laws that prohibit extrajudicial killings and deployment of torture.
Describing the military attacks in Oguta and some parts of Imo State in which many youths were reportedly killed by the marauding armed operatives of the military of Nigeria as constituting a grave crime against humanity, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has promised that civil rights advocacy groups active in the South East of Nigeria have already started compiling evidence of crimes against humanity by armed security agencies whilst carrying out the internal security operations in the South East and in due time those reports will constitute a body of fresh petition to be despatched to the International Criminal Court in The Hague Netherlands so that those operatives and the military commanders responsible for committing the crimes against humanity are brought for prosecution and global judicial sanctions. The Rights group warned against the killing by aggrieved groups of members of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
In a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said the government of the United States of America shouldn’t stop at just publicising the conditions precedent for the contractual agreement between it and the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the deployment of the newly bought Tucano Jets but there has to be a transparent, open and public monitoring and reporting mechanisms so Nigeria keeps to the commitments to respect for human rights that it entered into with the United States of America regarding the operational deployment of the new militsrung combat technology loans Tucano Jets.
HURIWA is proposing to stakeholders in the South East of Nigeria including State Governments and businesses to set up a trust fund to support the credible and genuine activities of the Civil Rights Advocacy community in the South-East of Nigeria with specific operational mandates to monitor the activities of the members of the armed forces of Nigeria and to promote civil and military synergies and partnerships.
HURIWA said: “It is indeed heartwarming to read that the United States Government says the Federal Government is expected to deploy the Super Tucano aircraft only in the northern part of the country where Boko Haram terrorists have engaged the Nigerian state in a decade-long insurgency killing thousands and displacing millions. This, therefore, precludes the possibility of the Federal Government deploying the security equipment in the South-East despite the designation of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra as a terrorist organisation and the setting up of the armed Eastern Security Network by IPOB. The South-East has been the epicentre of a secessionist agitation threatening to break up the country.”
HURIWA recalled that briefing journalists earlier in the week, the US Principal Deputy National Security Advisor, Jonathan Finer, at an event attended by the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, said the terms of the agreement during the sale of the 12 Tucano aircraft were explicit. Reacting to a question on whether the Tucano fighter planes might be deployed against secessionists in the South-East, Finer said the planes were an important platform for security, particularly in the North, expressing pleasure over the conclusion of the deal.
HURIWA quoted the American official Jonathan Finer as stating thus: “We are pleased to deepen our security cooperation with the Nigerian government. I think we made it very clear our expectations about this platform where it would be used and in the right way and we are always raising concerns when we have them and that it’s true with all our security partners around the world.This is an important platform for security, particularly in the North and we are pleased the transaction is finally concluded.”
The Rights group which called on President Muhammadu Buhari to speak publicly on this condition of never to deploy Tucano Jets to hunt members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) or any self determination groups in the South said Nigerian government deserves to be commended for agreeing to sign on to the Conditions precedent for the contractual agreement between it and the government of the United States of America regarding the operational deployment of the newly acquired American built Tucano Jets.
HURIWA also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to rein in reactionary elements and war mongers in his administration such as the bellicose minister of information and culture Lai Mohammed and the Fulani bigot who doubles as the Senior special assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari Alhaji Garba Shehu who are using their privileged access to the media of mass communication to overheat the polity and the South East of Nigeria particularly through their rabid Igbo phobic speeches and diatribes.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a Nigerian separatist group over the sale of aircraft the plaintiffs say will be used to persecute its supporters.
The two officials, who are the defendants in the case, said a federal court in Washington has no jurisdiction to address the claim brought by the Indigenous People of Biafra, or IPOB, according to their motion submitted Oct. 18.
IPOB filed a complaint against the senior members of President Joe Biden’s cabinet in August, asking a judge to compel them to reverse the recently completed sale of a dozen A-29 Super Tucano aircraft to Nigeria’s air force. The secessionist movement’s complaint argued that the planes will be deployed against their sympathizers.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, which proscribed IPOB as a terrorist organization in 2017, accuses the group of waging a violent campaign against state personnel and assets. IPOB says it’s a peaceful movement working to establish an independent nation in southeastern Nigeria that will defend the Igbo ethnic group against discrimination by the federal government.
IPOB’s complaint said Blinken and Austin violated laws intended to protect civilians from harm caused by U.S. weapons in the possession of foreign security forces.
“It would be inappropriate for the court to weigh in on a sensitive foreign affairs matter,” the U.S. officials said in their response requesting the dismissal of the case.
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA ( HURIWA) has rejected what it calls the persistent double standards that tailor federal government policies and initiatives. HURIWA carpeted the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami over his claims that the banned Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (Ipob) was responsible for some disturbances during last year’s #ENDSARS PROTESTS in Lagos including the lootings of the palatial mansion of the Oba of Lagos. HURIWA says it is possible that the Minister of Justice who is a politician is playing politics of EAST/WEST DIVIDE so as to precipitate political division between Igbo people and the Yoruba and then open up the possibility of retaining power in the North.
There is a clear evidence of double standard in the area of public prosecution of politically exposed individuals from either north or south. The government, particularly the ministry of justice has consistently manifested aversion or lack of enthusiasm towards bringing suspected terrorists from the Northern part of Nigeria to justice but he is always overzealous to charge other persons from the south with certain phantom allegation of of terrorism and the Justice ministry is busy conjuring up half baked allegations to hang it on the necks of either Nnamdi Kanu or Sunday Igboho.
A good example will suffice; Nnamdi Kanu versus Certain elements and Divisive leaders of Miyetti Allah that have been quoted in the media for supporting the activities of the armed Fulani headsmen who are terrorists.
These same leaders of Miyetti Allah who are in Nigeria have made treasonable statements challenging the government authorities of the state governments that have carried out the legal passage of laws on the anti-open grazing legislation have not only made threats but carried out their threats like in Ondo state.
The National President of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association has threatened fire and Brimstone in the South East of Nigeria just because people people rejected Ruga Fulani initiative of the president.
Few months after these threats were published in the media and still on the internet as I speak, there are sporadic attacks targeting strategic national security institution and assets and the government’s at both the South East and centre have refused to conduct proper forensic investigation but have hastily blamed Eastern Security Network and the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra. IPOB denied.
There are now cases, incidents of targeted killings of prominent Igbo leaders , businessmen including traditional rulers in the South East which tallies to the threats made by Miyetti Allah but yet the federal government refused to arrest the National and regional leaders of Miyetti Allah for this act of terrorism all around the country. But This same government is quick to kidnap Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from from Kenya and charged him for broadcasting hate messages he allegedly committed while in London where he resides. But the miyetti Allah officials who have made threats and have carried out those threats are indeed enjoying public sponsored security cover even while they commit those acts of terrorism. Now the justice minister is carrying out MEDIA TRIALS OF NNAMDI KANU WHOM THEY HAD DETAINED AND ALSO TRYING TO ROPE IN SUNDAY IGNOHO INTO BOKO HARAM TERRORISTS SOONSORSHIP AND THIS IS THE SAME MAN THAT NEARLY GOT KILLED BY DSS WHO INVADED HIS IBADAN HOUSE AT NIGHT BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD THAT MADE HIM TO ESCAOE HE COULD HABE BEIBG KILLED. NOW MALAMI COMES UP WITH TALES BY MOONLIGHT STORIES THAT IGNOHO HAS A LINK TO BOKO HARAM SPONSORS. THIS IS RIDICULOUS.
Government has refused to publish the Names of the 400 Boko haram terrorists supporters they identified even the matter have been filled in court. When a matter is filled in court , it has become a public document so why is the government concealing the identities of those sponsors?
Is it because the sponsors allegedly consist of Northern Muslims ?
Now government has quickly published the list of the account details of Mr Sunday Igboho the leader of Yoruba Nation . So why is he the minister of justice refusing to publish the list of Boko Haram Sponsors?.
HURIWA cited media report as claiming that the Federal Government has identified the financiers of Yoruba nation separatist leader, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho. Abubakar Malami, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja on Friday. According to Malami, a committee constituted by the Federal Government unmasked how Igboho got monies from 43 bank accounts, across nine banks. “The Federal Government has received the report on financers of Adeniyi Sunday Adeyemo a.k.a Sunday Igboho. The report revealed that Sunday Igboho is a Director and signatory to Adesun International Concept Limited registered on 23rd April, 2010.” “Adesun International Concept Limited also has Oladele Oyetunji and Aderopo Adeyemo as Directors. Sunday Igboho is linked to 43 bank accounts in 9 banks.
“The major financier of the fugitive and separatists was found to be a Federal Law Maker in the National Assembly. A total sum of ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN MILLION, ONE AND FORTY-FIVE THOUSAND NAIRA ONLY (N127, 145,000.00) was received by Igboho from his financiers between 22nd October, 2013 and 28th September, 2020 through Adesun International Concept Ltd accounts. “A total sum of TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-THREE MILLION, ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-EIGHT THOUSAND, TWO HUNDRED NAIRA ONLY (N273,198,200.00) transaction outflows was recorded from Sunday Igboho’s account between 15th March, 2013 and 11 the March, 2021. “Investigation reveals that Adesun International Concept Ltd (belonging to Igboho) transferred the sum of twelve million seven hundred and fifty thousand naira (N12, 750,000) to Abbal Bako & Sons. “It might be recalled that Abbal Bako & Sons and its promoter Abdullahi Umar Usman are suspects in the on-going Joint Terrorist Financing Investigation. Abdullahi Umar Usman is by way of financial transaction connected to SURAJO ABUBAKAR MUHAMMAD (who was sentenced to life imprisonment in UAE on charges of financing terrorism [Boko Haram]). “This report shows the nexus between separatists’ agitation, terrorism financing and disruptions of peace in the country. “The report found connections of financial transaction between Adesun International Concept Ltd (belonging to Igboho) and some construction companies and businesses among others.” HURIWA has condemned this press conference as subjudice and a crude attempt to force the hands of the court to convict Nnamdi Kanu by all means. ABUBAKAR MALAMI who has refused to disclosed identities of sponsors quickly pointed out one of them and then linked him to Sunday Igboho who is known to have chased away armed Fulani attackers in the South West of Nigeria. Is Malami saying a Northern Moslem funded Sunday Igboho to chase away Northern Mislem Fulani terrorists from South West the same armed Fulani militia that the minister of justice has till date failed to prosecute and told us HURIWA in writing that he has no case files on them?
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko:
NATIONAL COORDINATOR:
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). OCTOBER 22ND 2021.
Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, the 14th Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nigeria, will present the Keynote Address at the 2021 House of Justice Summit & Banquet scheduled to hold on Friday 26 November,2021 at the Epitome Events Centre, Barnawa Kaduna State- Nigeria.
According to a statement jointly signed by Gloria Mabeiam Ballason Esq, the Host and C.E.O. of House of Justice and Deborah Bawa, Head of Administration, the 2021 Summit with the theme *Leadership, Governance & National Security* has Prof. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu as Chief Host and features panel discussants like former Nigeria Presidential aspirant Engr. Matthias Tsado, Dr. Leena Hoffman of Chatham House, Dr. Ann Kryzanek Kareth – an American Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, Dr. Kabiru Chafe, a former Director of Arewa House and a host of others.
The Banquet at the evening session is a Royal Blue Ball which holds in honor of Honourable Justice Gideon Isa Kurada, a sterling examplary jurist who retires from the judiciary.
In its sixth edition, the Summit & Banquet is the biggest annual event of the House of Justice and has in previous editions hosted Supreme Court Justice K.B. Akaahs, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, United Nations Betty Murungi, Prof. Jerry Gana, Governor Ramalan Yero, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, Senator Ben Murray Bruce, Senator Shehu Sani, Dr. Usman Bugaje and a host of others.
” Tickets, Corporate tables and sponsorship opportunities are available at +2347053842016, +2348036121560 or at info@houseofjusticeng.com,” the statement reads.
PROTESTS MALTREATMENT BY DSS OF IGBO LEADER AND FORMER GOVERNOR OF ANAMBRA STATE CHIEF CHUKWUEMEKA EZEIFE
The failure of the hierarchy of the nation’s Federal High Court to defend her independence from the stranglehold of the Executive arm of government represented by the Department of State Services (DSS) that has kept barring Journalists, stakeholders and Human Rights activists from accessing the courtroom for the trial of detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (Ipob) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is disastrous message to the World that the judiciary in Nigeria is in chains and is being controlled by the Presidency.
This position was expressed by the prominent Civil society and pro-democracy group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) which carpeted the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court justice John T. Tsoho for abdication his authority and thereby allowing the operatives of the Department of State Services to dictate who should have access to the publicly funded Federal High Court Complex which contravenes the CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE OF SEPARATION OF POWERS as encapsulated in sections 4, 5 and 6 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
Besides, the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) said the denial of access to the courtroom of the respected Igbo leader and former governor of Anambra State His Excellency Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife shows the lack of equity in the administration of the Daura Katsina State born President Muhammadu Buhari and his entire internal security team headed by Northern Moslems with little or no respect for traditional, societal, prominent leaders of other Ethnicities such as the Igbo speaking Ethnicity because if the person of Chukwuemeka Ezeife was one of the prominent Northern Fulani leaders, the Department of State Services won’t subject him to the public opium of letting him sit on the barefloor outside of the Courtroom of the Federal High Court even when it is a notorious knowledge that he was nominated officially by the Igbo Ethnicity to stand in for the race to witness and observe the prosecution of one of the respected Sons of Igboland- Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
HURIWA protested the ugly scenario whereby access to the courtrooms built by the contributions and resources of taxpayers is now out temporarily under the control of the executive arm of government under President Muhammadu Buhari which is the plaintiff in the same matter of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and the government of Muhammadu Buhari just as the Rights group said this singular act of cowardice on the part of the Nigerian judiciary which ceded the authority to let Nigerians have access to the Courtroom to the control of the Department of State Services headed by a Northern Moslem has open the judicial process to critical doubts regarding the independence and objectivity of the process before the Federal High Court just as the Rights group has asked the Chief Judge to take back the control of the Court Complex.
HURIWA lamented that the hierarchy of the Federal High Court out of fear refused to accredit representatives of the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA to observe the judicial trial of the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) just as the Rights group accused the chief judge of the Federal High Court of failing to even reply to the written request it sent to his office over two weeks back. HURIWA recalled that in its application titled: “REQUEST TO MONITOR LEGAL PROCEEDING ON MAZI NNAMDI KANU”, it wrote as follows:
“We write to convey our readiness and intention to be offered access to the Court room to monitor the legal proceedings of global importance which involves the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).
As members of the organized Civil Rights Community of Nigeria, we feel obliged to attend and watch the proceedings in this specific matter given the groundswell of claims that the management of the Court does not feel comfortable allowing members of the public to attend the proceedings. There’s also the suspicion that the Federal High Court has denied Nigerians access to the trial of Nnamdi Kanu for the reason that the process won’t be transparent and accountable and therefore violate section 36(5) of the Nigerian Constitution which complete categorises all accused persons as innocent in the eye of the law. The refusal of access to the venue of the trial is therefore not in tandem with Democratic principles of checks and balances.
No doubt Sir, that Nigeria practices Presidential system of government even as Country is governed by a grund norm which states unambiguously that the people are the owners of the sovereignty of Nigeria as enshrined in section 14 (2) thus “ It is hereby, accordingly, declared that: (a) sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority; (b) the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government: and (c) the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution”.
Sir, we remind your good offices that the public and the press have qualified First Amendment Right of access to Court proceedings and records. Although the first amendment does not explicitly mention the right of access say Emilies S. Kraft, the United States of America’s supreme Court has held that the right to attend criminal proceedings is implicit in freedom of speech and serves an important function in a democratic society by enhancing trial fairness and appearance. We thereby write you this request so two officers from our organization will be given regular access to monitor Nnamdi Kanu’s trial because of its Human Rights related implications. Whilst awaiting your rapid response, accept our highest consideration and regards.”
HURIWA regretted that the office of the CJ of the Federal High Court which acknowledged HURIWA’s letter however failed to respond either in the negative or positive even as the Rights group said it was disgraceful that Lawyers, Journalists and activists were never allowed access to a public Court Complex. HURIWA recalled that journalists were barred from courtroom as the trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, resumed on Thursday at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) barred journalists and some court officials from gaining access to the premises.
The frustrated court workers and journalists were seen milling around and wearing heavy frowns.
The media according to HURIWA were not told the reason for the denial because it was not made known by government officials, though a handful of reporters from a list produced by the stern looking DSS operatives were allowed into the premises.
DSS officials had set up a barricade at the entrance of the Court and prevented reporters and officials from entering, resulting in angry scenes and arguments. HURIWA described the behaviour of the operatives of the executive controlled DSS as a primitive recourse to self help effirt by the central government which will inevitably undermine fairness and fair trial.
Most of the DSS operatives were masked as they were clad in their all black ensemble, reports the media quoted by HURIWA.
Gathered outside were frustrated family members, supporters, civil rights groups, lawyers, journalists and other members of the public, who were not allowed near the court.
Nnamdi Kanu’s Special Counsel, Alloy Ejimakor while addressing journalists said the lawyers who accompanied him were also denied access.
HURIWA recalled that Mazi namdi Kanu is facing charges bordering on terrorism and treasonable felony charges brought against him by the Federal Government.
The Federal Government had filed seven amended charges bordering on treasonable felony and acts of terrorism against Kanu on Monday.
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, filed the charges on behalf of the government.
HURIWA has therefore advocated the take over of control of the Federal High Court Complex Abuja from the stranglehold of the operatives of Department of State Services by the hierarchy of the Nigerian Court system or it will drag the CJ of Federal High Court to the National Judicial Council for ceding independence of the Federal High Court to the Department of State Services which is unlawful and unconstitutional. “The DSS is under the control and command of the President. The President is behind the ordeals of Nnamdi Kanu and if there will be justice or semblance of justice the least physical evidence of it is the guarantee that the facilities of the Nigerian courts are controlled by staff of the Federal High Court who are judicial staff under the Judicial arm of government and not the same arm of government that has brought a citizen to court under some charges”.
The State Security Service (SSS) has blocked all access to the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to prevent lawyers and journalists from attending the trial of separatist and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu.
Other litigants who have court hearings scheduled for today are also not being allowed entry into the court by the SSS Peoples Gazette gathered on Thursday morning.
The secret police has denied Mr Kanu access to his lawyers and family since he was abducted and brought back to Nigeria by state operatives in Nairobi, Kenya, with many people questioning the legality of the manner in which he was rearrested.
Mr Kanu was initially charged for terrorism, however, in an amended charge sheet, the SSS said he was now being arraigned for calling President Muhammadu Buhari an idiot, a terrorist, and “embodiment of evil.”
Spokesman to the SSS, Peter Afunnaya did not respond to calls and messages from The Gazette seeking comments on the blockage of the courts.
There was a mild drama on Wednesday morning in the Mpape Area of Abuja when a landlord parked his car and refused to give way to two military vehicles who had parked their cars beside his house thereby blocking the road.
The landlord had overnight come back home to meet the military armored Hilux vehicles parked beside his house and decided to park his behind theirs.
At dawn on Wednesday, the military men said they were on their way out of Abuja, as they were part of a governor’s convoy, and then called on the man to move his vehicle and create space for them to exit the area, but it did not get down well with the man who refused to move his car.
Neighbors on hearing the commotion interceded on behalf of the military men but the man refused. The military personnel had to call for a backup from some of their colleagues who arrived in another armored Hilux van to which the man locked his house and watched as the military men rage and threaten.
Despite pleas and warning shots fired into the air by neighbors and the military men, the man refused, which left the military men with the option of moving the car out of the way by pushing it. While that was going on, the man stood on his balcony with a bottle of beer in his hand, at the same time videoing the whole process.
It took the military men four hours to finally leave the area as the man comes out to apologize and pacify his neighbors stating personal reasons why he did not come out to remove the car and paving way for them.
Describing as absolutely unconstitutional, unlawful, despicable, primitive and reprehensible the actions of the Lagos State’s Police Command for disrupting some PROTESTS and illegally clamping down of peaceful civil Protesters, the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has called for the unconditional release from detention of all the protesters arrested by police for marking the one year anniversary of the October 20th 2020 massacre of protesters by armed forces ofNugeria in Lekki Tollgate.
HURIWA described those who participated in the anniversary protests as heroes of constitutionalism who rather than being victimised, humiliated, harassed or tortured should be awarded National honours of bravery and courageous defence of Constitutional democracy and the Rule of law which constitute collectively the bedrock of the human rights provisions enshrined on chapter 4 of the GrundNorm.
Besides, the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, a Prominent pro-democracy and leading civil rights advocacy group, has asked the National Assembly to create the NATIONAL BOARD FOR THE OROTECTION OF CIVIL PROTESTERS to be governed just like an independent and totally autonomous body of few experts and civil society leaders to provide advocacy platforms supported by corporate Nigeria to promote, advance, canvass and teach younger Nigerians on the essence of peaceful Assembly and protests and to monitor violations of the fundamental rights to civil protests by state security agencies and the Nigerian police Force. HURIWA upbraided the National Human Rights commission for spectacularly selling out to reactionary elements in government.
HURIWA said the call for a creation of an independent, autonomous but strong national agency to focus on Promotion of attitudes of positive, democratic and peaceful protests has become increasingly necessary as a way of mainstreaming the democratic virtue of civil protests which are critical elements for the sustenance and survival of Constitutional democracy in the Country. It said the body shouldn’t be another avenue to create jobs for the boys but should be a body to be constituted by less than 36 staff and hierarchy with offices in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria.
HURIWA condemned the medieval mindset of the Nigerian Police and other security agencies towards organisers and participants in civil protests just as HURIWA said that the continuous attacks by police and security agencies of protesters are weakening Constitutional democracy and turning Nigeria into a brutal tyranny and dictatorship which it insists must be resisted because dictatorship isn’t different from slavery.
The Rights group called for the legal sanctions of Police operatives fingered in the multiple extrajudicial killings by SPECIAL ANTI-ROBBERY SQUAD of the Nigerian Police which was reportedly disbanded on paper as a consequence of the demands of protesters at last year’s #ENDSARS PROTESTS nationwide. HURIWA condemned the slow progress at the various judicial panels investigating the #ENDSARS PROTESTS just as it asked state governments to enforce the decisions reached by the panels.
HURIWA said the so called disbandment of the notorious SARS was a smokescreen and a charade because the Nigerian Police are still protecting their operatives with blood of the innocent in their hands just as extralegal killings of suspects are still going on in most police detention centres. It called for the passage of a legislation to open up all detention centres to the visitation of civil society leaders and private members of the public so as to ensure that the use of physical torture and forced disappearances are curbed.
In a media statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said: “HUMAN and CIVIL RIGHTS to protests are safeguarded under sections 38, 39, 40 and 41 of the Constitution. It is a fundamental human right of the people to voice out their displeasures, disappointments and frustrations.
The right to protest is the manifestation of first, the right to freedom of thought and conscience and religion (Sec. 38) which precedes rights to freedom of expression (Sec. 39) followed by the right to peaceful assembly and association (Sec. 40) and accompanied by right to freedom of movement (Sec. 41). Right to protest also “embodies the exercise of a number of indivisible, interdependent and interconnected human rights” like right to life (Sec. 33), right to dignity of human person (Sec. 34), right to personal liberty (35), right to fair hearing (36), right to private and family life (37), and right to freedom from discrimination (42). The Court of Appeal upheld the right to protest in the case of IGP V. ANPP (2008) 12 WRN 65 that “certainly in a democracy, it is the right of citizens to conduct peaceful processions, rallies or demonstrations without seeking and obtaining permission from anybody. It is a right guaranteed by the 1999 constitution and any law that attempts to curtail such right is null and void and of no effect.”
Under the International Law, the right to protest is equally protected. Articles 18, 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Right, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right and the UN Human Rights Council’s Resolution at its 38th Session on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the context of Peaceful Protests are quite apposite.
Principle 1 of the Resolution on Promotion and Protection of Human Right in the context of Protest recognizes that a protest can engage in actions targeting any audience, including public authorities, private entities or individuals, or the general public and may annoy or give offence to people who are opposed to the ideas. It also recognizes that protest may temporarily hinder or obstruct the activities of third parties.
Principle 2 then imposes obligations on States/countries to respect the right to protest. States should not prevent, hinder or restrict the right to protest; States should protect the right to protest and should undertake reasonable steps to protect protesters by adopting measures necessary to prevent violations by third parties; States should fulfil the right to protest by establishing an enabling environment for the full enjoyment of right to protest.”
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has therefore called for the arrest and prosecution of the police operatives seen mistreating and physically attacking peaceful protesters because even under the recently signed Anti Torture law, nobody is permitted to inflict physical, emotional or psychological torture on citizens.
