IBRAHIM EL- ZAKZAKY MUST BE FREE

In the present day Nigeria, the current federal government has openly professed her refusal to respect binding decisions of Federal High Courts on the bail of the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky. The Nigerian Minister of Information Mr. Lai Mohammed who happens to be a lawyer was so disrespectful of the judiciary to an extent that he explained that government will not respect the different orders validly made by different divisions of the Federal High Court asking for freedom for the detained religious leader and his wife. Unfortunately, the official and private bars of legal practitioners have failed to rise to the occasion and defend the integrity of the judicial system. This is shameful. Nigerians must speak out to defend our constitution if we are not to voluntarily permit the current government to lead us into anarchy and lawlessness. Why is the Nigerian president refusing to release the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria who has been granted unconditional bail?

As far back as December 2016, the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the unconditional release of Ibrahim ElZakzaky and his wife, Malama Zeenatudeen within 45 days. Delivering the judgment, Justice Gabriel Kolawole held that the continued detention of El-Zakzaky and his wife by state instrumentality was an arbitrary act.

Kolawole said no extant law within the country’s statutory legal framework and external ones subscribed to by the state had allowed anybody to be held against his or her wishes.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that ElZakzaky had filed a fundamental right enforcement suit against the federal government challenging both him and his spouse detention. The court therefore, held that the continued detention of the applicant without trial amounted to a gross violation of the constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.

“I have studied the addresses of Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), counsel to the applicant and the counter-argument advanced by Mr. Tijani Gazali counsel to the state. The issues raised in the application were to me fundamental rights issues. The fact, however, remains that the respondents have not denied they have not kept the applicant and wife in detention since Dec.15,’’ he said.

Kolawole further said that the defence of the respondents was not tenable in law, adding that the state had not justified why the applicant and his wife were held under protective custody. According to him, neither the constitution nor the National Security Act allows a citizen to be in protective custody except on grounds of suspicious contagious disease.

The court therefore awarded the sum of N50 million as general damages against the federal government in favour of the applicant and his wife. It also ordered the construction of a new accommodation for El-Zakzaky’s family in any part of Kaduna State or any town so approved by the applicant within the Northern region. Kolawole further ordered the Inspector-General of Police to deploy policemen to protect the shiite’s leader in his new home pending the diffusion of the acclaimed threat on his life.

NAN recalls that Zakzaky’s detention followed a violent clash between his followers and the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai in Zaria on Dec. 14, 2015. Speaking with newsmen after the proceedings, Mr. Festus Okoye, counsel to the Shiite’s leader, described the outcome of the suit as a victory for civil rule.

He said the development would go a long way to douse the tension the detention of El-Zakzaky’s had generated in members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN).

“We are, however, waiting for the government to without delay carry out the orders of the court, that way peace and stability would return to our Federation,’’ Okoye said.

We must remind ourselves that constitutionalism will remain a mirage if courts’ verdicts are disrespected by government officials who have subscribed to respect the constitution.

Buhari is vacationing in a society that respects their laws but has locked up an innocent citizen illegally in total disregard of the constitution. Is the president above the law? Emmanuel Onwubiko, head, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria