Not a few law experts have berated the police and the
federal government on frequent abuse of the rule of law and the
flagrant disobedience of court orders as again, being demonstrated
in Senator Dino Melaye’s case. TUNDE OYESINA and AKEEM NAFIU
report.
The executive arm of government had once again displayed its
penchant for non-recognition of the rule of law and disobedience of
court order. This was clearly manifested by the police in way and
manner it had so far handled the case of a Senator representing
Kogi West in the Senate, Dino Melaye.
However, one would not be surprised at the unfolding scenario as
it has become a tradition for the President Muhammadu Buhari-led
administration to disobey courts’ order and debase the principle of
rule of law as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
For instance, the government had demonstrated abuse of orders of
court and “above the law” role on three different occasions where
it had ignored court order granted a former National Security
Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Col. Sambo Dasuki
(rtd) in an alleged money laundering and illegal possession of
firearms suit. Three years on, Dasuki is still languishing in the
custody of the Department of State Security. As if that is not
enough, full trial is yet to commence in the suit.
The operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS) had on
December 1, 2015 picked up Dasuki, weeks after being held under
house arrest. A 13-man presidential committee had indicted the
former NSA and some unnamed officials in the last administration of
financial misappropriation in procurement of arms for the Nigerian
military. Recently, Dasuki denied ever receiving any formal or
informal invitation to appear before an Investigative Panel on the
Procurement of hardware and munitions in the armed forces.
He was consequently arraigned before the retired Justice Adeniyi
Ademola of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja over an alleged
illegal possession of firearms. The court consequently admitted him
to bail.
On perfecting his bail condition, the DSS re-arrested him on the
premises of Kuje prisons Abuja on December 29, 2015. He was,
however, re-arraigned on a fresh charge before an Abuja High Court
over an alleged diversion of N13.5 billion.
Two separate judges of the court, Justice Peter Affen and
Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf had also at different times admitted
Dasuki to bail, but was not released by the DSS. Furthermore,
Justice A.R Mohammed of the Federal High Court who took over
illegal possession of firearms case from Justice Ademola had also
affirmed the bail granted Dasuki, Justice Ahmed Mohammed affirmed
the bail shortly after taking Dasuki’s plea in the amended
sevencount charge.
The judge said that since the prosecution counsel, Oladipo
Okpeseyi SAN did not object to the bail of the ex-NSA, the court
would uphold same as he ordered the defendant to continue to enjoy
the bail condition granted him in 2015 when he was first arraigned.
In addition to the national court, a regional court, ECOWAS Court
of Justic also ordered the immediate release of Dasuki.
Despite being granted bail by various courts, Dasuki remains in
the custody of the State Security Service. Both cases at the two
different courts had both lingered at the instance of the
prosecution while Dasuki remains in the custody of the DSS. The
Federal Government just last week increased the initial 19 count
charge against him alongside others to 32 counts.
The federal government is expected to re-arraign the embattled
former NSA on June 17. A similar case is that of the leader of
Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Mallam Ibrahim El- Zakyzaky and his
wife Zeenah. El-Zakyzaky was arrested in 2015 by the DSS after he
was alleged to have obstructed the convoy of the Chief of Army
Staff in Zaria.
He has since then been in the custody of the DSS on the
instruction of the federal government despite the order of a
competent court of law which admitted them to bail.
El-Zakyzaky had through his lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana SAN
approached the court, urging the court to admit the Shiite leader
to bail. Delivering ruling on the application, the trial judge,
Justice Gabriel Kolawole had on December 2, 2016 ordered an
unconditional El-Zakzaky and his wife, Malami Zeenat within 45
days. Justice Kolawole made the order while delivering judgment on
a fundamental right enforcement suit El-Zakzaky had filed against
the Federal Government.
The court held that the continued detention of the applicant
without trial amounted to a gross violation of his constitutionally
guaranteed rights.
It went ahead and awarded N50million in damages against the
Federal Government even as it ordered the construction of a new
accommodation for El-Zakzaky’s family in any part of Kaduna State
or the Northern region.
The court dismissed Federal Governmnet’s position that the
applicant and his wife were under “protective custody.”
Specifically, the Shi’ite leader who has been in detention since
December 14, 2015 applied for the enforcement of his fundamental
rights to life, personal liberty, dignity of human person, right to
private and family life and private property.
His arrest and detention followed a bloody clash between members
of the sect and soldiers attached to the Chief of Army Staff, Major
General Tukur Buratai at Zaria, Kaduna State.
The suit marked FHC/ CS/128/2016, was predicated on Sections 33,
34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41 and 46 (1) & (2) of the 1999
Constitution as amended, as well as on Articles 4, 5, 6, 11 and
12(1) of the African Charter on Human & Peoples Rights
(Ratification and Enforcement) Act, LFN, 2010.
The court was among other things, prayed to declare that “the
detention of the applicant at Abuja by the respondents since
December 14, 2015 is illegal and unconstitutional as it violates
his fundamental rights to personal liberty as enshrined in Section
35 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as
amended, and Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’
Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (CAP A10), Laws of the
Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
Despite the bail granted El-Zakyzaky, the Federal Government had
refused to release him. However, precisely on April 18 that the
Kaduna state government filed a murder and homicide charge against
the couple and two others.
Lawyers, however, condemned the government’s penchant for
flouting orders of court, describing it as portending grave
consequence for the nation’s nascent democracy. Still undaunted,
this flagrant abuse of court order has again, continued in Senator
Melaye’s case. It was all drama from Abuja court to Kogi as an
agent of government, the police insisted on trial despite his
ill-health.
Melaye’s travail begun about two weeks ago, when he was stopped
by the Nigerian Immigration Service at the Nnamdi Azikiwe
Interna-tional Airport, Abuja on his way to Morroco for an official
engagement.
Dino was arrested and subsequently released by the NIS. However,
before that day ran out, the police laid siege on the Senator’s
Maitama residence. Dino’s offence was linked to an accusation by
some arrested suspects that the Senator supplied them with arms and
ammunitions. Dino eventually surrendered himself to the police, who
in turn took him to their office with plans to arraign him before
the court.
A new twist came into the matter when the police decided to move
Dino to Lokoja in Kogi state for arraignment. Along the way, while
still within Abuja, around the popular Area 1 round about, Dino was
reported to jump out of the police bus conveying him, after the bus
was allegedly crossed by two Hilux van, alleged to be the Senator’s
supporters.
The Senator was subsequently taken to Zankli Hospital, a private
facility in Abuja for treatment, having sustained injury while
jumping out from a moving vehicle. The police had on the same day
rearrested Dino from the private hospital and relocated him to the
National Hospital.
The Senator was still undergoing treatment in the hospital when
last Wednesday, the police arraigned him before a Chief
Magistrate’s Court sitting in Wuse 2, Abuja on an alleged escape
from lawful Custody.
The pathetic situation here was that, Dino was brought to court
in an ambulance and arraigned while on a stretcher. This was the
same way the Federal Government kept conducting the prosecution of
Metuh who have been on stretcher.
However, the police re-arrested Dino after the court proceeding,
just the way DSS did on December 31, 2015 when it re-arrested
Dasuki on the premises of Kuje Prisons in Abuja after he had
per-fected his bail condition.
The police later last Thursday moved Dino to Lokoja in a Police
ambulance and arraigned him before another Magistrate’s court on a
different charge. At the Lokoja court, the issue of jurisdiction
was yet to be sorted out, when the trial Magistrate, Suleiman
Abdulahi refused Dino’s bail application and consequently ordered
that he (Dino) be remanded in prison custody till June 11.
Lawyers, human rights activists and other stakeholders had begun
to condemn this act, looking at it from various dimensions.
Reacting from the perspective of breach of human rights, Human
rights lawyer, Femi Falana SAN faulted the police for Melaye’s
arraignment on a stretcher. Falana said: “The arraignment of
Senator Dino Melaye on a stretcher in Abuja on Wednesday and Lokoja
on Thursday morning is unacceptable in a civilised society.
“It is particularly degrading and humiliating as it violates the
fundamental rights to the dignity of his person guaranteed by
Section 34 of the constitution and Section 7 of the Administration
of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.” Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria,
Jibrin Okutepa said “I watched with keen interest the manner in
which Senator Melaye is being arraigned on a stretcher in
courts.
I’m not too sure this drama is not damaging our image as a
nation. “Senator Melaye needs to be well before answering to
whatever allegations the state may have against him. What is so
urgent in the allegations that cannot wait till he gets well?
“Whatever offence or offences he may have committed, the manner in
which he is being wheeled from one court to another suggests to me
political persecution rather than criminal prosecution.
“One of the cardinal duties of the state is protection of life
of its citizens. I think Senator Melaye deserves to be treated well
before being dragged to courts to answer to the allegations against
him. “It is inhuman and inhumanity to man to continue treating him
this way.”
Chief Mike Ozekhome SAN said it is disgusting, shameful,
inhuman, barbaric and degrading. “The locusts’ days are here
already.” Hakeem Olatunde Afolabi SAN said “using the El-zakzaky’s
case as a yardstick for assessing Buhari’s government on the
observance of the rule of law and obedience to court’s orders, it
is a very sad development.
I want to urge everyone who meant well for this country to rise
up to the occasion and tell the government that it has not done
well at all. Under the concept of rule of law, nobody is above the
law.
Therefore, in order to have a sustainable democracy, government
must at all-time respect court’s pronouncements. “The cases of
El-zakzaky and Dasuki, are clear examples through which one can say
that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed when
it comes to the observance of the rule of law. “Under the
Constitution, an accused person is presumed innocent of whatever
allegation against such an individual until the contrary is proved
in court.
Dasuki has been admitted to bail through various court
pronouncements but for reasons best known to it, government has
failed to comply with the court’s directives.
This is an indication of the autocratic nature of the current
administration. Government’s action is a very sad development for
the nation’s democracy. It shows there was no respect for the
court’s authority as well as the liberty of citizens of this
country. It’s so unfortunate if government feels it can do whatever
it likes in a democracy.
Not a few law experts have berated the police and the
federal government on frequent abuse of the rule of law and the
flagrant disobedience of court orders as again, being demonstrated
in Senator Dino Melaye’s case. TUNDE OYESINA and AKEEM NAFIU
report.
The executive arm of government had once again displayed its
penchant for non-recognition of the rule of law and disobedience of
court order. This was clearly manifested by the police in way and
manner it had so far handled the case of a Senator representing
Kogi West in the Senate, Dino Melaye.
However, one would not be surprised at the unfolding scenario as
it has become a tradition for the President Muhammadu Buhari-led
administration to disobey courts’ order and debase the principle of
rule of law as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
For instance, the government had demonstrated abuse of orders of
court and “above the law” role on three different occasions where
it had ignored court order granted a former National Security
Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Col. Sambo Dasuki
(rtd) in an alleged money laundering and illegal possession of
firearms suit. Three years on, Dasuki is still languishing in the
custody of the Department of State Security. As if that is not
enough, full trial is yet to commence in the suit.
The operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS) had on
December 1, 2015 picked up Dasuki, weeks after being held under
house arrest. A 13-man presidential committee had indicted the
former NSA and some unnamed officials in the last administration of
financial misappropriation in procurement of arms for the Nigerian
military. Recently, Dasuki denied ever receiving any formal or
informal invitation to appear before an Investigative Panel on the
Procurement of hardware and munitions in the armed forces.
He was consequently arraigned before the retired Justice Adeniyi
Ademola of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja over an alleged
illegal possession of firearms. The court consequently admitted him
to bail.
On perfecting his bail condition, the DSS re-arrested him on the
premises of Kuje prisons Abuja on December 29, 2015. He was,
however, re-arraigned on a fresh charge before an Abuja High Court
over an alleged diversion of N13.5 billion.
Two separate judges of the court, Justice Peter Affen and
Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf had also at different times admitted
Dasuki to bail, but was not released by the DSS. Furthermore,
Justice A.R Mohammed of the Federal High Court who took over
illegal possession of firearms case from Justice Ademola had also
affirmed the bail granted Dasuki, Justice Ahmed Mohammed affirmed
the bail shortly after taking Dasuki’s plea in the amended
sevencount charge.
The judge said that since the prosecution counsel, Oladipo
Okpeseyi SAN did not object to the bail of the ex-NSA, the court
would uphold same as he ordered the defendant to continue to enjoy
the bail condition granted him in 2015 when he was first arraigned.
In addition to the national court, a regional court, ECOWAS Court
of Justic also ordered the immediate release of Dasuki.
Despite being granted bail by various courts, Dasuki remains in
the custody of the State Security Service. Both cases at the two
different courts had both lingered at the instance of the
prosecution while Dasuki remains in the custody of the DSS. The
Federal Government just last week increased the initial 19 count
charge against him alongside others to 32 counts.
The federal government is expected to re-arraign the embattled
former NSA on June 17. A similar case is that of the leader of
Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Mallam Ibrahim El- Zakyzaky and his
wife Zeenah. El-Zakyzaky was arrested in 2015 by the DSS after he
was alleged to have obstructed the convoy of the Chief of Army
Staff in Zaria.
He has since then been in the custody of the DSS on the
instruction of the federal government despite the order of a
competent court of law which admitted them to bail.
El-Zakyzaky had through his lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana SAN
approached the court, urging the court to admit the Shiite leader
to bail. Delivering ruling on the application, the trial judge,
Justice Gabriel Kolawole had on December 2, 2016 ordered an
unconditional El-Zakzaky and his wife, Malami Zeenat within 45
days. Justice Kolawole made the order while delivering judgment on
a fundamental right enforcement suit El-Zakzaky had filed against
the Federal Government.
The court held that the continued detention of the applicant
without trial amounted to a gross violation of his constitutionally
guaranteed rights.
It went ahead and awarded N50million in damages against the
Federal Government even as it ordered the construction of a new
accommodation for El-Zakzaky’s family in any part of Kaduna State
or the Northern region.
The court dismissed Federal Governmnet’s position that the
applicant and his wife were under “protective custody.”
Specifically, the Shi’ite leader who has been in detention since
December 14, 2015 applied for the enforcement of his fundamental
rights to life, personal liberty, dignity of human person, right to
private and family life and private property.
His arrest and detention followed a bloody clash between members
of the sect and soldiers attached to the Chief of Army Staff, Major
General Tukur Buratai at Zaria, Kaduna State.
The suit marked FHC/ CS/128/2016, was predicated on Sections 33,
34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41 and 46 (1) & (2) of the 1999
Constitution as amended, as well as on Articles 4, 5, 6, 11 and
12(1) of the African Charter on Human & Peoples Rights
(Ratification and Enforcement) Act, LFN, 2010.
The court was among other things, prayed to declare that “the
detention of the applicant at Abuja by the respondents since
December 14, 2015 is illegal and unconstitutional as it violates
his fundamental rights to personal liberty as enshrined in Section
35 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as
amended, and Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’
Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (CAP A10), Laws of the
Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
Despite the bail granted El-Zakyzaky, the Federal Government had
refused to release him. However, precisely on April 18 that the
Kaduna state government filed a murder and homicide charge against
the couple and two others.
Lawyers, however, condemned the government’s penchant for
flouting orders of court, describing it as portending grave
consequence for the nation’s nascent democracy. Still undaunted,
this flagrant abuse of court order has again, continued in Senator
Melaye’s case. It was all drama from Abuja court to Kogi as an
agent of government, the police insisted on trial despite his
ill-health.
Melaye’s travail begun about two weeks ago, when he was stopped
by the Nigerian Immigration Service at the Nnamdi Azikiwe
Interna-tional Airport, Abuja on his way to Morroco for an official
engagement.
Dino was arrested and subsequently released by the NIS. However,
before that day ran out, the police laid siege on the Senator’s
Maitama residence. Dino’s offence was linked to an accusation by
some arrested suspects that the Senator supplied them with arms and
ammunitions. Dino eventually surrendered himself to the police, who
in turn took him to their office with plans to arraign him before
the court.
A new twist came into the matter when the police decided to move
Dino to Lokoja in Kogi state for arraignment. Along the way, while
still within Abuja, around the popular Area 1 round about, Dino was
reported to jump out of the police bus conveying him, after the bus
was allegedly crossed by two Hilux van, alleged to be the Senator’s
supporters.
The Senator was subsequently taken to Zankli Hospital, a private
facility in Abuja for treatment, having sustained injury while
jumping out from a moving vehicle. The police had on the same day
rearrested Dino from the private hospital and relocated him to the
National Hospital.
The Senator was still undergoing treatment in the hospital when
last Wednesday, the police arraigned him before a Chief
Magistrate’s Court sitting in Wuse 2, Abuja on an alleged escape
from lawful Custody.
The pathetic situation here was that, Dino was brought to court
in an ambulance and arraigned while on a stretcher. This was the
same way the Federal Government kept conducting the prosecution of
Metuh who have been on stretcher.
However, the police re-arrested Dino after the court proceeding,
just the way DSS did on December 31, 2015 when it re-arrested
Dasuki on the premises of Kuje Prisons in Abuja after he had
per-fected his bail condition.
The police later last Thursday moved Dino to Lokoja in a Police
ambulance and arraigned him before another Magistrate’s court on a
different charge. At the Lokoja court, the issue of jurisdiction
was yet to be sorted out, when the trial Magistrate, Suleiman
Abdulahi refused Dino’s bail application and consequently ordered
that he (Dino) be remanded in prison custody till June 11.
Lawyers, human rights activists and other stakeholders had begun
to condemn this act, looking at it from various dimensions.
Reacting from the perspective of breach of human rights, Human
rights lawyer, Femi Falana SAN faulted the police for Melaye’s
arraignment on a stretcher. Falana said: “The arraignment of
Senator Dino Melaye on a stretcher in Abuja on Wednesday and Lokoja
on Thursday morning is unacceptable in a civilised society.
“It is particularly degrading and humiliating as it violates the
fundamental rights to the dignity of his person guaranteed by
Section 34 of the constitution and Section 7 of the Administration
of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.” Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria,
Jibrin Okutepa said “I watched with keen interest the manner in
which Senator Melaye is being arraigned on a stretcher in
courts.
I’m not too sure this drama is not damaging our image as a
nation. “Senator Melaye needs to be well before answering to
whatever allegations the state may have against him. What is so
urgent in the allegations that cannot wait till he gets well?
“Whatever offence or offences he may have committed, the manner in
which he is being wheeled from one court to another suggests to me
political persecution rather than criminal prosecution.
“One of the cardinal duties of the state is protection of life
of its citizens. I think Senator Melaye deserves to be treated well
before being dragged to courts to answer to the allegations against
him. “It is inhuman and inhumanity to man to continue treating him
this way.”
Chief Mike Ozekhome SAN said it is disgusting, shameful,
inhuman, barbaric and degrading. “The locusts’ days are here
already.” Hakeem Olatunde Afolabi SAN said “using the El-zakzaky’s
case as a yardstick for assessing Buhari’s government on the
observance of the rule of law and obedience to court’s orders, it
is a very sad development.
I want to urge everyone who meant well for this country to rise
up to the occasion and tell the government that it has not done
well at all. Under the concept of rule of law, nobody is above the
law.
Therefore, in order to have a sustainable democracy, government
must at all-time respect court’s pronouncements. “The cases of
El-zakzaky and Dasuki, are clear examples through which one can say
that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed when
it comes to the observance of the rule of law. “Under the
Constitution, an accused person is presumed innocent of whatever
allegation against such an individual until the contrary is proved
in court.
Dasuki has been admitted to bail through various court
pronouncements but for reasons best known to it, government has
failed to comply with the court’s directives.
This is an indication of the autocratic nature of the current
administration. Government’s action is a very sad development for
the nation’s democracy. It shows there was no respect for the
court’s authority as well as the liberty of citizens of this
country. It’s so unfortunate if government feels it can do whatever
it likes in a democracy.
Read more https://www.nairalaw.com/like-melaye-like-metuh/