Olalekan Adetayo and Ade Adesomoju
To ethno-cultural militant groups
calling for the break-up of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has
these words for them: Nigeria will not disintegrate.
President Buhari stated this on Thursday
during a meeting with the South-East Council of Traditional Rulers at
the Presidential Villa.
He said the question of carving another country out of Nigeria was misplaced.
According to a statement by his Senior
Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the President
insisted that efforts should be geared towards harnessing the potential
of the country instead of calling for a division of the country.
“The question of having another country
out of Nigeria is going to be very difficult. From 1914, we have more
than 200 cultures living with one another. God had endowed this country
with natural resources and talented people. We should concentrate on
these and be very productive,” the President said.
Addressing specific issues raised in the
address by the traditional rulers, the President gave assurance that
the South-East would also benefit from the new railway system being put
in place by his administration.
On their request for more
representation for the South-East in his government, the President said
that he was “very conscious of the sensitivities of the South-East”, on
account of which, he gave the region’s four out of five states senior
ranking ministers in the federal cabinet.
Buhari used the occasion to appreciate
the good work of the ministers from the region, saying that they were
doing very well for the country.
He appealed to the traditional rulers
from the South-East to persuade their people to give his government a
chance and to continue to serve as beacons of culture and tradition of
their people.
The President assured the delegation
that kidnapping and cattle rustling, which he described as
“unfortunate,” would be the government’s next target, now that “we have
managed to calm down the North-East.”
Taking note of the commendation for his
administration’s war against corruption and insecurity by the
traditional rulers, Buhari expressed frustration at the endless nature
of some ongoing trials, citing some of the cases as going far back to
the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“We are asking the judiciary to clean itself. Nigerians are tired of waiting. They want some actions,” he said.
The President said he hoped that the
acting Chief Justice of Nigeria and the Attorney General of the
Federation would come to some form of agreement by which specially
designated courts would give accelerated hearing to some pending
corruption cases, arguing that “we want Nigerians to know we are
serious.”
Earlier in his address, the Chairman of
the South-East Council of Traditional Rulers, Eze Eberechi Dick,
dissociated the monarchs from the ongoing clamour for Biafra Republic.
Dick said they were committed to the nation’s unity.
He, however, called the President’s attention to some of the demands being made by the agitators.
He said, “On the issue of the agitation
by some of our youths like IPOB and others for Biafran Republic, we have
continued to engage and preach to them that every problem of the nation
can be best resolved through peaceful dialogue and respect for the rule
of law.
“While we assure Your Excellency of our
total belief in one united and indivisible great nation of ours called
Nigeria, we also want to call the attention of the Federal Government to
some of their mentioned grievances for serious considerations.
“Their agitations include neglect of
the South-East in the Amnesty Programme, deplorable state of federal
roads and other infrastructure in the South-East, relegation of oil
producing states of the South-East in NDDC projects and programmes,
exclusion of the South-East in key federal appointments; and
anti-nationalistic treatment of Igbo people by other Nigerians.”
They also called the President’s
attention to the activities of kidnappers and cattle herdsmen posing
serious security challenges to the people of the region.
Buhari’s comment on Nnamdi Kanu’s detention not binding on court –Judge
Meanwhile, Justice Binta Nyako of a
Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday said President Muhammadu Buhari
was only expressing his personal opinion when he said last year December
that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, could
not be granted bail.
The judge said this in her ruling on the bail applications filed by Kanu and his co-accused persons.
President Buhari, had in his first
presidential media chat, in December 2015, said the likes of Kanu and
the immediate past National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, who was
accused of spearheading the diversion of over $2bn meant for arms
procurement, could not be granted bail because of the gravity of the
offences they had committed.
Though Justice Nyako refused to grant
bail to Kanu and his co-accused persons, she pointed out while alluding
to the issue of Buhari’s comment raised in the application filed by
defence lawyers that the President was entitled to his personal opinion.
The judge said the President’s personal opinion was not binding on the court.
The judge said, “President Muhammadu Buhari is entitled to freedom of expression and his opinion.
“However, it does not necessarily have the force of law on the court.”
Kanu and his co-accused persons are
being prosecuted by the Federal Government for offences including
treasonable felony and an act bordering on terrorism.
The three other accused persons are
National Coordinators of IPOB, Mr. Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin
Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi.
The defendants were, in the 11 counts,
accused of managing an unlawful society, publication of defamatory
matter, illegal possession of firearms and improper importation of
goods.
Onwudiwe was specifically accused in one of the counts of an act bordering on terrorism.
All the counts were in connection with
the accused persons’ alleged broadcasts on Radio Biafra and the
agitation for secession from Nigeria, states in the South-East and
South-South zones and other communities in Kogi and Benue states to
constitute a Republic of Biafra.
Ruling on the applications filed by the
four defendants on Thursday, Justice Nyako held that the defendants were
not deserving of being granted bail as most of the charges preferred
against them were “ordinarily not bailable”.
Before the case was heard on Thursday,
Justice John Tsoho, who was handling the case before Kanu accused him of
bias, had some weeks ago, refused to grant bail to the accused persons.
The case was transferred to Justice
Nyako on account of Kanu’s allegation and all the accused were
re-arraigned before her on November 8.
The lawyers to the four accused persons filed fresh bail applications which were subsequently argued on November 17.
Ruling on Thursday, Justice Nyako held
that she had no reason to “deviate” from the earlier “findings” of
Justice Tsoho, who had refused to grant bail to the accused while
presiding over the case.
Justice Nyako ruled on Thursday that
though the case started de novo (afresh) before her, there were no new
facts and circumstances that could warrant her to grant bail to the
accused as the charges preferred against them were “serious offences”.
She said as an alternative to granting bail to the defendants, she preferred to order an accelerated hearing of the case.
The prosecuting counsel, Mr. Shuaibu
Labaran, after the judge delivered her ruling on Thursday, moved his
application for witness protection.
He sought an order of the court
“granting leave to the prosecution witnesses to be protected by giving
evidence behind screen to be provided by the court.”
All the four defence lawyers opposed the application.
The judge fixed December 13 for ruling.
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