Foremost Civil Rights Advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION
\nOF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has asked the Inspector General of Police Force
\nMohammed Adamu to ensure that the take over of the prosecution of the
\nnotorious kidnapping gangster whose arrest led to the violent killings
\nof three well-trained police investigators in Taraba State, Alhaji
\nHamisu Bala (Wadume) by the controversial Federal Attorney General and
\nminister of justice Alhaji Abubakar Malami does not end up like some
\nother high profile cases that were similarly hijacked by the office of
\nthe Attorney General of the Federation and some of the watered-down and
\nwithdrawn.<\/p>\n
HURIWA recalled that on Wednesday, Shuaibu Labaran, a lawyer from the
\nMinistry of Justice told the Federal High court, Abuja division which
\nwas handling the matter that the minister of justice and the Federal
\nAttorney-General Abubakar Malami is now prosecuting the matter.<\/p>\n
HURIWA stated that going by the philosophical fact that the first
\nimpression in everything is critical, it follows that the FIRST STEP OF
\nTHE FEDERAL ATTORNEY GENERAL in this take over of the case is suspicious
\ngiven that it is inexplicable that the Chief law officer feigned
\nignorance of the details of the matter his office has now taken over
\nwhen his office asked for an adjournment of this sensitive matter that
\nhas taken ages to be taken to the Federal High Court of Nigeria to
\nenable his office to study the papers before re-arraigning the
\ndefendants.<\/p>\n
The Rights group said this is a delay tactics which is a grave threat to
\njustice and fairness because the families of the three police detectives
\nkilled by soldiers on the alleged orders of Captain Ahmed Tijani
\nBalarabe have not found the SWIFT JUSTICE THAT THEY DESERVE
\nCONSTITUTIONALLY BY SEEING THAT THE SUSPECTS ARE SWIFTLY PROSECUTED AND
\nPUNISHED SEVERELY FOR THIS HEINOUS CRIME.<\/p>\n
HURIWA\u00a0 which criticised the take over of this matter by the Federal
\nAttorney General and minister of justice who began badly by praying the
\ncourt for a short adjournment is absolutely suspicious because there are
\ninsinuations that the case may suffer the fate that other politically
\nsensitive corruption cases went through in the hands of the Federal
\nAttorney General to such a ridiculous extent that some of them were
\neventually withdrawn from the Court of law in what is considered
\npolitically negotiated settlements in which the Chief law officer relied
\non the constitutional power of withdrawal to discontinue these cases to
\nthe consternation of patriotic Nigerians.<\/p>\n
“HURIWA is absolutely against these delay tactics and the fact that the
\nNigerian government has yet to arrest all the suspects and the
\naccusation that the major culprit has been sent on the military course
\ndoes not seat well in the conscience of the nation and is offensive to
\nthe core soul of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
“Why the take over by the AGF of this matter? Why did the AGF not take
\nover the case of the Billionaire kidnapper arrested in Lagos who is
\nbeing prosecuted by the Police? Why did the Minister of justice not take
\nover the prosecution of Chukwudimeme Onwuamadike alias Evans who is
\nbeing prosecuted by the NPF? What is the interest of the Nigerian
\ngovernment or is it because the kidnapping chief suspect is known to
\nhave built a big mosque in his part of Taraba and since some elements in
\nthe Federal Government are seen as Islamists, therefore, they are
\npackaging a soft landing for the once-beloved patron of their religious
\nsect in Taraba state which is about 95% a Christian State?”<\/p>\n
HURIWA warned that the Nigerian Police Force must know that generations
\nyet unborn will not forgive the treachery and betrayal should this
\nmatter be swept under the carpets like some other matters taken over
\nmidway by the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice just as
\nHURIWA asked the Federal Attorney General to explain why he is stepping
\nin to prosecute this matter.<\/p>\n
HURIWA stated that: “Now the case is almost halfway and suddenly the
\nAttorney\u00a0 General of the federation from nowhere showed up to take over
\nthe matter and stated that he has received the file and noticed that
\nthere are about 20 defendants from the charge. The AGF is now playing
\nhide-and-seek which purely is to delay the matter by affirming that
\nthere is a need for him to review the charge and also liaise with the
\narresting agency to ensure that all the defendants are brought to
\ncourt.”<\/p>\n
HURIWA said: “Although the AGF represented by an official assured that
\nthe ministry would see that justice is done, We as well as
\nright-thinking Nigerians remembering what other cases have taken over by
\nthe Justice minister had suffered are not comfortable with this
\npolitically arranged take over.\u00a0 Although Justice Binta Nyako adjourned
\nthe matter until June 8 for re-araignment, We are by this statement
\ndemanding that the POLICE FORCE OF NIGERIA SHOULD SET UP A LEGAL TEAM
\nHEADED BY AT LEAST A SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NIGERIA TO TEAM UP WITH THE
\nOFFICE OF THE FEDERAL ATTORNEY GENERAL TO PROSECUTE THIS MATTER TO AVOID
\nPOLITICAL Compromised.”<\/p>\n
HURIWA recalled that the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu,
\nhad filed a 16-count charge on terrorism, murder, kidnapping and illegal
\narms running against Wadume and the others. They were first arraigned on
\nMarch 16. Count one of the charge read, “That you, Alhaji Hamisu Bala,
\n33, aka Wadume; Capt. Ahmed Tijjani Balarabe; ASP Aondona Iorbee; Insp.
\nAliyu Dadje; Auwalu Bala; Uba Bala; Ahmad Suleiman; Bashir Waziri;
\nZubairu Abdullahi; Rayyanu Abdul and others now at large, between
\nFebruary and April 2019 at Takum and Ibi, Taraba, within the
\njurisdiction of this court, while acting in concert, conspired together
\nto commit a felony, to wit: acts of terrorism, by attacking and
\nkidnapping one Usman Garba, aka Mayo, at his filling station in Takum,
\nthereby committing an offence contrary to Section 17 of the Terrorism
\n(Prevention) Amendment Act 2013. All suspects were also accused of
\npossessing six AK-47 rifles and dealing in prohibited firearms.”<\/p>\n
HURIWA stated that Like most Nigerians, we recall some of the high
\nprofile Controversial Cases Taken Over By Nigeria’s Attorney General,
\nMalami and these cases either were muddied up and thrown away or the
\nJustice minister wrongly exercised the constitutional power of nolle
\nproseque as provided for in section 174(c) of the Nigerian constitution.<\/p>\n
HURIWA recalled that the recent of such high profile matters taken over
\nby the AGF is the money laundering trial of Akinola Ogunlewe being
\nhandled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.<\/p>\n
“Another case taken over by Malami was the N25bn fraud trial of Danjuma
\nGoje, former governor of Gombe State. The case was stalled when in an
\nemergency hearing before Justice Babatunde Quadri EFCC counsel, Mr.
\nWahab Shittu, told the court that the agency was withdrawing from the
\ncase and handing it over to the office of the Attorney-General for
\ncontinuation.
\nThe AGF however, stated that having thoroughly reviewed the matter found
\nno prima facie case while adding that it was weak, withdrew the charges
\nagainst Goje from the court in the exercise of his constitutional
\npower.”<\/p>\n
“Another of such corruption and the controversial case taken over by the
\noffice of the AGF as we vividly recalled and even reported by the media
\nwas the alleged debt of MTN’s N242bn and $1.3bn for its business
\nmalpractices in the country.HURIWA recalled that\u00a0 MTN announced that it
\nreceived through its counsel, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), a letter from the
\nAGF formally withdrawing his demand for N242,244,452,215.97 and
\nUSD$1,283,610,357.86 alleged revenue indebtedness. According to MTN,
\nwhile the AGF had dropped his demand, he, however, referred the matter
\nto the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Nigeria Customs Service to
\nresolve the controversy.”<\/p>\n
HURIWA recalled that the MTN\u00a0 matter has since died an unnatural death.
\nIn 2017, Malami reportedly withdrew a corruption case involving three
\nformer officials — Nasiru Ingawa (former Special Adviser on Sure-P to
\nformer Governor Ibrahim Shema), Abdulazeez Shinkafi (former director of
\nfinance and Account at the Katsina State Sure-P department) and Bello
\nBindawa (former Chief Store Officer in the Katsina State civil
\nservice)”.<\/p>\n
Foremost Civil Rights Advocacy group-: HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has asked the Inspector General of Police Force Mohammed Adamu to ensure that the take over of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\n