Concern over Buhari administration’s penchant for disobeying court orders

In this report, OLADIMEJI RAMON looks at the number of court
orders not honoured by the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in
the last four years

In 2016, the Federal Government, in an announcement made by the
then Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,
disclosed that it had recovered cash sums of N78,325,354,631.82,
$185,119,584.61, £3,508,355.46 and €11, 250, among others, from
looters.

Mohammed said the funds were recovered within the first year of
President Muhammadu’s first term in office – between May 29, 2015,
and May 25, 2016.

The ex-information minister, however, did not give the names of
the looters from whom the funds were recovered.

Curious about the identities of the looters, an anti-corruption
advocacy group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project,
requested the names of the looters according to the provisions of
the Freedom of Information Act.

After the Federal Government spurned the request for the list of
the looters, SERAP headed for the Federal High Court in Lagos,
praying for an order compelling the government to honour the
request.

The group argued that publishing the looters’ names would
provide an insight into the debate on the ongoing anti-corruption
fight and how looters had been evading punishment.

It urged the court to determine whether by virtue of Section
4(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2011, the Federal Government
was not under an obligation to publish the looters’ names as it had
requested.

Giving judgement on July 5, 2017, Justice Hadizat Shagari agreed
with SERAP and ordered the Federal Government to make the names of
the looters public.

But two years on since Justice Shagari gave the judgement, the
Federal Government has yet to publish the list.

Earlier, SERAP had obtained a court judgement ordering the
Buhari administration to compel the regimes of former President
Olusegun Obasanjo, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, and former
President Goodluck Jonathan to account for how much of the money
looted by the late military dictator, Gen Sani Abacha, was
recovered under each of the regimes and how the recovered funds
were spent.

The Federal High Court, in a judgment by Justice Mohammed Idris
(now a Justice of the Court of Appeal), made the order in 2016.

Three years after, that judgment has also yet to be obeyed.

Piqued by the Federal Government’s disregard for the court
judgements, SERAP in May 2018 sent a petition to the United
Nations, wherein it urged the international body to prevail on
President Buhari to put a stop to “wilful disobedience of court
judgements by his government.”

The organisation, in its petition dated May 11, 2018, lamented
the “Federal Government’s habit of picking and choosing court
judgements to obey.”

It expressed concern that if not checked, a situation where the
Federal Government wilfully disobeyed court judgements would
ultimately “put the rule of law in Nigeria under siege.”

In the petition addressed to the UN Special Rapporteur on the
Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Mr Diego García-Sayán, SERAP
said apart from the two cases above, the Federal Government was
also in disobedience to the court judgements ordering that the
leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem
El-Zakzaky; his wife, Zeenat; and a former National Security
Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, who were being detained, should be
released.

El-Zakzaky and his wife had been arrested and kept in the
custody of the Department of State Services, following a violent
clash between members of the IMN sect and soldiers in the convoy of
the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, in Zaria, Kaduna
State on December 14, 2015.

But on December 3, 2016, the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered
the release of the cleric and his wife.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole (now a Justice of the Court of Appeal)
made the order while giving judgements in two separate fundamental
rights enforcement suits filed on behalf of El-Zakzaky and his wife
by human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN).

Falana had in the suit contended that the detention of the
couple for nearly a year without trial amounted to a violation of
their fundamental rights under Section 35(1) of the 1999
Constitution and provisions of the African Charter on Human and
Peoples Rights.

In his judgement, Justice Kolawole agreed with Falana and
ordered the release of El-Zakzaky and his wife within 45 days of
the judgement.

Besides, the judge awarded N25m each in favour of the husband
and wife against the Federal Government for the violation of their
rights.

Till date, however, neither has El-Zakzaky and his wife been
released nor the N50m awarded in their favour paid by the Federal
Government.

In the string of court judgements being disobeyed by the Federal
Government in the last four years were also those ordering that
Dasuki should be released on bail pending the conclusion of the
criminal cases filed against him.

The ex-NSA is facing multiple charges bordering on illegal
firearms possession and diversion of the $2.1bn earmarked under
former President Goodluck Jonathan for the purchase of arms for the
Nigerian Armed Forces to fight the Boko Haram insurgents.

Following his arraignment, Dasuki was variously granted bail by
both the courts where he is being tried for illegal firearms
possession and fraud.

Before meeting the bail conditions, he was remanded in Kuje
Prison. He regained his freedom on December 29, 2015, after
perfecting the bail conditions.

The freedom was, however, short-lived as upon stepping out of
the prison, he was re-arrested by operatives of the Department of
State Services and taken into the custody of the secret police.

He has remained there since then, notwithstanding subsequent
court orders, including that of the Court of Justice of the
Economic Community of West African States in Abuja, which awarded
N15m damages in his favour against the Federal Government.

Four years after, Dasuki’s trials have made little or no
progress as he insisted that until the government allowed him to
enjoy the bail granted him by the courts, he would not appear in
court for his trial.

Another judgement, which the Federal Government may have
disobeyed was the one made by the Federal High Court in Abuja
directing the government to set the overall limits for the “amounts
of consolidated debts” of the nation’s federal, state and local
governments.

Justice Kolawole gave the judgement on February 20, 2018, in a
suit filed by the Centre for Social Justice.

In the suit filed on May 8, 2013, during the administration of
former President Jonathan, the centre said it was concerned about
the fast-growing local and foreign debt profiles of the federal and
state governments in Nigeria.

In his judgement, Justice Kolawole said it was mandatory for the
government to set the debt limits as provided by Section 42(1) of
the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.

He specifically ordered the Federal Government to set the debt
limits, which should be approved by both the Senate and the House
of Representatives within 90 days of the judgement.

In an interview with our correspondent on Thursday, the
President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Mr
Malachy Ugwummadu, said the CDHR was concerned about government’s
penchant for shunning court orders, saying the trend had the
potential to undermine the state.

He said, “It is not just a concern that government’s penchant
for disobeying court orders gives the CDHR, it is that the trend
has the capacity of undermining the government.

“Section 287 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria 1999 is to the effect that every government, whether
federal or state, every institution of the government, every agency
of the government and individuals are obligated to obey and enforce
the judgements of courts of records.

“These judgements, that we are complaining have not been
complied with, are judgements of competent courts of jurisdiction
and courts of records. Unfortunately for Mr President, he was the
Chairman of ECOWAS when the judicial arm of the same organisation,
which is the ECOWAS Court sitting in Abuja, handed down the rulings
in respect of El-Zakzaky. But they refused to obey. That is a very
bad example to not just the country that he leads but the
sub-regional group and the member states.

“It goes to show the quality of the legal advice that the
President is getting from the judicial experts around him.”

Also, the President, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Prof Yemi
Akinseye-George (SAN), said the FG could not afford to continue to
disobey court orders as doing so might precipitate a state of
anarchy.

Akinseye-George said any court judgement, no matter how
unreasonable it might seem, must be obeyed, adding that if the
government had any reason at all not to obey a court judgement, it
must go to that court and state such reasons rather than ignore
such judgement.

The professor said Nigeria’s democracy, which is now 20 years
old, could only be sustained by upholding the supremacy of the rule
of law.

He expressed the hope that President Buhari’s government would
turn a new leaf in its second term.

But a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr Jiti Ogunye, said given the track
record of President Buhari’s administration in the last four years,
it would be a waste of time for anyone to hope for a change of
attitude in government’s disposition to court orders.

Ogunye said it was up to the Nigerian people to say no more and
compel the government to begin to respect the decisions of the
court.

He said, “Given the track record of the administration on the
disobedience of court orders, what hope should anybody have that
there is going to be a better outcome? Anybody that has such hope
is not realistic. Deliberately and not, this administration has
told Nigerians what it would do regarding such cases.

“Just recently, the Court of Appeal granted another order for
the release of Dasuki on bail; even though there is no sitting
attorney general, that shouldn’t take an eternity to comply
with.”

Similarly, Mr Norrson Quakers (SAN) said he could not hope for a
change in government’s attitude to court orders as President Buhari
was a military ruler who was finding it difficult to embrace
democratic ideals.

Quakers said the only hope for a change was “if the judiciary
becomes independent in the real sense of independence.”

He said, “You also have a group of persons, who, rather than
speak the truth to the authorities, are playing partisan politics
because of self-interest. So, it is difficult to say that in the
next four years we are going to see a change in the government’s
attitude to court orders.”

Upon Buhari’s inauguration for the second term on May 29, 2019,
SERAP had in a statement by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oludare,
described disobedience of a court order as a blight on the
President’s first term in office.

It said, “We urge you to use the opportunity of your second term
to begin to implement your oft-expressed commitment to the rule of
law by immediately obeying decisions of Nigerian courts,” SERAP
told the President.

Culled from Punch

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