Falana frowns at FG and states inability to prosecute suspects of killings in Nigeria
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has condemned the delay in
prosecuting over 100 suspects arrested in connection with the killings
in Benue State, fearing that the suspects might eventually escape
justice.
Falana has also asked the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) “to
investigate the refusal of state attorneys-general to prosecute murder
suspects due to political pressure or sheer negligence of duty.”
In a letter he addressed to the NBA President, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud
(SAN), Falana feared that the suspects might be released from
custody, noting that they “have not been charged with culpable homicide
in the appropriate courts by the state government.”
The activist regretted that the NBA had failed “to monitor the
prosecution of the scores of murder suspects arrested by the police or
indicted by the judicial and administrative panels of inquiry set up by
federal and state governments to probe violent civil disturbances in the
country.”
He said: “Between 1999 and 2007, an official squad was fingered in the
unlawful elimination of not less than 70 people in Gombe State. The
murder charges filed against the suspects by the police were struck out
by the courts at the instance of the state government.
“The late Alhaji Umar Hassan who demanded for the prosecution of the
culprits was charged with giving false information to the police by the
State government!”
“The members of an official squad, which killed some politicians and
students in Ekiti State from 2003-2006 were arrested and charged with
murder at the High Court, sitting at Ado Ekiti. A retired army captain
and his police orderly who killed the students were convicted and
jailed.
“But both convicts were, however, granted pardon by the state
governor in 2009. As if that was not enough, the murder charges pending
against the other murder suspects were struck out by the trial court in
2014 for want of diligent prosecution on the part of the state
government.
“The Ahmed Lemu Presidential Panel, which investigated the
post-election violence in 12 northern states and Akwa Ibom State in
April 2011 found that 856 people were killed. In the White Paper issued
on the report the Federal Government directed that the culprits be
prosecuted but the directive was not carried out by the states where the
killings occurred.
“The National Human Rights Commission under the leadership of Prof.
Chidi Odinkalu found that 55 people were killed in the pre-election
violence, which occurred in Rivers State in 2015. The culprits were
never prosecuted by the state government. Since then over 100 other
citizens have been killed by armed gangs.
“The Justice Garba Commission of Inquiry, which investigated the
violent attack on the Shiites by the Nigerian Army in December 12-14,
2015 found that 347 people were killed and secretly buried in a shallow
grave by the murderers.
“In the white paper issued on the report of the commission, the state
government directed that the suspects be prosecuted. But the
Attorney-General of Kaduna state has refused to prosecute the murder
suspects.”
Falana noted that in December 2016, the National Management
Emergency Agency (NEMA) confirmed the killing of 204 people in Southern
Kaduna, lamenting that the murder suspects had not been prosecuted till
date.
He argued that since culpable homicide or murder “is a state offence
you will agree with us that the attorneys-general of all the states in
the country have failed to discharge their duties under section 205 of
the Constitution.
“In fact, some of the Attorneys-General have a penchant for
terminating murder charges by filing nolle prosequi. In the process, the
Chief Law Officers of the states have breached their oaths of office
and subverted the rule of law.”
Credit: dailypostng
