Rule Of Law: Nigerians Being Held Hostage By President, Govs — Inibehe Effiong

Human rights lawyer and activist, Mr Inibehe Effiong has slammed President Muhammadu Buhari and state governors for trampling on the rule of law and holding Nigerians hostage, saying the selective application of court judgments and consistent disobedience of the constitution are unacceptable.

Effiong spoke against the backdrop of Tuesday’s dramatic faceoff between the Lagos State Governor, Gov. Babajide Sanwoolu and a Chief Superintendent of Police CSP, Mr Abimbola Oyewole.

The CSP had defied the directive of the governor to withdraw his men from the Magodo estate where they had gone to execute a judgment of the apex court.

Speaking on a breakfast show on Arise TV, Effiong also berated successive governors of Lagos State including the current administration for not taking steps to execute the Supreme Court judgment on the Magodo land dispute since it was given in 2012.

He said; “Regarding what happened between the CSP and the governor, now, should the Governor have been there in the first place? It is a bit complicated. People say the governor is the Chief Security Officer of the state but I have always highlighted that that expression is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution. The specific wordings are not used. What Section 215 says is that the governor may give such lawful directives to the Commissioner of Police but there is a caveat that the CP may make a referral to the Inspector General of Police IGP.

Most dysfunctional police

“When you now have the IGP dispatching a team of policemen from Abuja to come to Lagos, why didn’t they go to Zone 2? Why was the state command not used for that operation? Why did they have to come from Abuja? The police in Nigeria today is about the most dysfunctional in the world.

The police in Nigeria today operate on a foundation of impunity and lawlessness. And guess what, the governor went to that place with the newly-promoted AIG Odumosu who is the Commissioner of Police in the state who ordinarily should have been the one to execute a judgment in the state. You didn’t have to send policemen from Abuja. What that shows you is that the police are dysfunctional and operate on a system of divide and rule.

“And you had the governor trying to tell the CSP to stand down and he said no, go to the Attorney General of the Federation. Now people are asking if Malami has done anything wrong, but there are two ways to look at it. The first is that the AGF is Chief Law Officer according to Section 150 of the constitution and when you look at the powers under Section 174, he has expansive powers that relate to enforcement of law”.

He said AGF Malami acted selectively in that he only chooses what judgment of court to obey while disobeying the ones that are not favourable to him.

“My concern is that Malami acted selectively because if you look at his antecedents in the last six years, you cannot tell me that you have a Chief Law Officer in this country, or an AGF who truly believes in the fidelity of the law. So, when he now comes out to ask why the judgment was not enforced, it is a valid question to ask. But this same AGF has supervised serial infractions and serial disobedience of court orders. So, what is his interest in this matter?

“But I do agree that maybe because the Lagos State Government had made this judgment difficult to be enforced, maybe this unfortunate incident will now be the trigger for this matter to be resolved.

Hostage

“The position of the Southwest Governors again is also very interesting because they have said that this is a call for true federalism and the president has now said he does not believe in state police. I understand the concerns. I am one of those who are genuinely concerned about the abuse of state police.

Imagine for a second that there was a Lagos State Police on that day and Sanwoolu as the governor went there and told the federal police to stand down and they refused, can you imagine what would have played out? I agree that at some point this is a conversation that Nigerians must have but Nigerians must also be honest that Governors have become constitutional vandals.

They have become the greatest violators of the constitution in this country. The reality is that I do not know a single governor who truly believes in the sanctity of the constitution in this country. They have desecrated the local government system. They have desecrated the states’ electoral commissions, they have desecrated the state judiciary and some of them have even annexed the judiciary as part of the Ministry of Justice.

So, if you are now going to establish a state police under this climate of impunity by governors, you must ensure that you put the necessary checks in place to ensure that they do not turn state police to private militia which is even what they are doing now.

So, I also have that fear but this is not to make an excuse for the statement of the president who came to power on the promise of restructuring and they set up a restructuring committee headed by Gov. Nasir el-Rufai which submitted a report but which was thrown into the dustbin of history.

So, when Buhari is speaking hypocritically that the issue is about governors and local governments, what has he done since he became president to reform a single institution in the last six years? Look at the madness with the Electoral Act Amendment Bill. The Executive stood there and watched all these play out, the president who has turned the leadership of the National Assembly to his ‘yes men’ couldn’t invite Lawan and tag Speaker to say this is my position for them to harmonize and do the needful before the bill was passed. Suddenly he rejected it.

This position of the president is founded on hypocrisy. So, we shouldn’t see it as “Oh, we have a president who is afraid that governors will abuse state police”. No. Has Buhari not abused the SSS, the Police and the Military? You have a situation where Nigerians are being held hostage by the president and the governors”.

He challenged Mr Malami to list the number of court judgments he has assisted Nigerians in enforcing, saying judgments against the federal government or its armed forces and the police have not been enforced by the AGF.

Effiong said; “You have Section 287 of the constitution on enforcement of decisions of courts which places an obligation on a governor to ensure that judgments of courts are enforced. But do not forget that in all these, I have said that the reason Malami and reg Police can afford to do this is probably because somebody knew somebody who spoke to somebody.

“This is because I also have a client whose property was taken by the Nigerian Army at No. 3 Carrington Crescent just by the American Embassy. This man has been there since 1975 before the Federal Inland Revenue Act was enacted that made his land form part of what is now called tag inland waterways. The military came, took this man’s land, destroyed his boats and everything. He went to court, got judgment. I wrote to the same Malami to help us enforce the judgment and nothing has been done.

“Several Nigerians have written petitions to Malami to help enforce judgments of courts. How many has he done? Even judgments that were against the federal government, Malami frustrates them. When you get judgments against the Police or Army, the law says you should get the consent of the AGF to enforce it. How many persons has Malami given consent to enforce judgments against the federal government since he became the AGF? Let him come out with the numbers.

“What I am saying is that behind the euphoria that we have an AGF who wants to enforce a court judgment, we must also state clearly that this is about hypocrisy, this is about self interest but in all that, we must not compromise the rules of law. When the Supreme Court has made a pronouncement, whether you like it or not, it is in the interest of all to ensure that that pronouncement is obeyed”.