$2.1bn Arms Deal: Falana Vows to Petition ICC Next Week
Insists Dasuki, Bafarawa, Dopkesi must be tried for crimes against humanity Says total amount looted is $6bn Fight corruption in line with your mandate, Osinbajo tells EFCC, ICPC
Senator Iroegbu Akinwale
Adedayo
Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has vowed to drag the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), and others implicated in the alleged $2.1 billion arms deal, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) next week.
Falana disclosed this in Abuja at the maiden lecture and dinner organised by the Amnesty International (AI), while delivering a lecture on ‘Promotion and Protection of human rights in Nigeria’, insisting that the accused must be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.
He described media reports that President Muhammadu Buhari administration was engaged in impunity by detaining the alleged suspects for more than 48 hours as an outright lie.
The human rights activists further argued that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, which was enacted by the previous regime, has empowered a magistrate on the application of the police or anti-graft agency a remand order or to detain those under investigation for more than 48 hours.
He said: “Last week some people were arrested. I think three of them principally (Dasuki, Raymond Dokpesi, and Attahiru Bafarawa). Again, contrary to media report, the suspects were not arrested for diverting the sum of $2.1 billion as it has been reported by the media, but for diverting, misappropriating and cornering $6 billion. I am talking of $2.1 billion and N643 billion.
“In any part of the world, this is a serious crime that affects the generality of Nigerians that affects our right to development, which led to the untimely death of over 5,000 soldiers and 20,000 civilians who have been massacred by the Boko Haram terrorists.
“This fund was earmarked for procuring military hardware to prosecute the war on terror, but a gang of people sat down and resolved to corner the fund, and continue to deceive our people that adequate weapons have been procured by our soldiers, and therefore they (soldiers) are indolent and cowardly by not fighting to defeat the Boko Haram sects.”
Falana continued: “Perhaps, unlike most Nigerians, I feel pain. I feel more challenged, because I have defended scores of military officers and soldiers on ‘probono poblico’ bases because I was convinced that these funds were diverted, and therefore, why are you charging these innocent people with cowardly behaviour which attracts the death penalty.
“Those who stole the money meant for procuring arms must not go unchallenged, nobody must invoke human rights, and no lawyer must be permitted to invoke human rights to cover these crimes against humanity.
“They went beyond just stealing and by next week, we are filing a petition before the ICC to ask that these guys be tried for crime against humanity because we are only talking of those who are alive, what of those killed recklessly because of this irresponsibility on the part of a few people.”
“Let me clarify this,” he said, “the right to liberty is guaranteed by Section 35 of the Nigerian Constitution as well as article 6 of the African Charter that nobody shall have his right to liberty taken away or abridged or violated, “however this is not an absolute right if there is reasonable suspicion that you have committed a criminal offence, then your right to liberty can be taken by the state.”
Therefore, he noted: “When you are told by the media that the Buhari regime is engaging in impunity by arresting people without taking them to court within 48 hours is no longer in our law, so, I made this point last Sunday and no one has challenged me.
“Under Section 393 to 399 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, this law was enacted by the previous regime not by Buhari government. That law has empowered a magistrate on the application of the police or anti-graft agency a remand order to detain those who are being investigated and this is subjected to a review within a period of not more than two weeks.
‘’The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has not violated any law in keeping those who were alleged to have turned the office of the NSA into a bazaar market where huge funds were distributed.”
Falana revealed that ordinary people were being enrolled to jail in the magistrate and Area courts on a daily bases, noting that when it comes to rich men, it becomes violation of human rights.
While emphasising that nobody invites a poor man for questioning, he said his house would be invaded, and if he’s not found, his wife would be arrested.
“To seek court injunction to be shielded against criminal investigation by judicial fiat order... no judge has the power to grant an order that a criminal suspect shall not be arrested... I have warned our judges and lawyers that when you do this, very soon, armed robbery suspect and terrorists will also apply to the court, because what is good for the goose is good for the gander; when we do that, we are going to have a state of anarchy,” he concluded.
Speaking further, Falana said Transparency International had issued an annual report and named South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya as the three most corrupt African countries. He noted that while he was disputing such assertion, he however blamed western government for collaborating with the local criminals to loot the treasury of African countries only to warehouse the funds in their countries.
“Transparency International (TI) is being hypocritical by saying Nigeria is more corrupt than Switzerland; that is a loose talk. Switzerland houses all the funds stolen by all dictators including dictators who have no records of how much they hold, who have died and nobody has the record of what is kept in Switzerland. So, TI will leave Switzerland alone and say Nigeria is corrupt. We are only a victim of corruption,” he clarified.
Falana pleaded with AI not to remain neutral in the fight against corruption in the country, urging them to move speedily in promoting and defending socio-economic development.
He said: ‘’The federal government has a record of $2 billion recovered Sani Abacha’s loot, but our former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, claimed that only $500 million have been recovered. To help her, the World Bank has just issued a report, a package of lies, a 700-page report to say that the $500 million that was recovered under her watch was judiciously spent and they have listed roads that were not even in existence in Nigeria that they were tarred. We are taking them on, and this will be the last time the World Bank tells lies about this country.
“Contrary to the claim of the World Bank and the government of Nigeria, I say without any fear of contradiction that not less than $4 billion has been recovered from the Abacha’s loot. It is the most successfully recovered loot in the world, and the records are there. Abdusalami Abubakar’s regime issued a decree, the forfeiture decree No 45 of 1999, where the regime claimed that it recovered about $1billion. President Olusegun Obasanjo has just written some books, and I am not sure he knew the implication. In the second volume of his ‘My Watch’, Obasanjo has admitted that he recovered $2 billion, £100 million and N10 billion.
“The Jonathan administration also recovered $970 million, the United States Government has helped us to recover $458 million last year. Buhari should set up an enquiry to investigate how the Abacha’s loot was re-looted,” Falana urged.
Also, the representative of the AI office in London, Mr. Thomas Schultz-Jagow, assured the people that AI would not shy away in the fight against corruption in the country.
Earlier, AI Director in Nigeria, Mahmut Ibrahim, said AI was committed to relentlessly holding government accountable from its obligation and duty to protect human rights, stressing that though it wasn’t going to be easy but it is determined to do it.
Meanwhile, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday charged the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and other anti-graft agencies in the country to conduct their activities in accordance with the rule of law and the statutory mandate of their various agencies.
Osinbajo urged the agencies to design a corruption risk assessment within their organisations so as to faithfully address leakages and weak links within the system.
The vice-president, who was represented by the deputy chairman of Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, Prof. Sadiq Radda, at the International Anti-corruption Day celebration in Abuja, noted that corruption weakens the trust of people in government, weaken institutions and escalates poverty and insecurity.
“Fight corruption according to your statutory mandate and shun self-censorship. Act in accordance with your statutory mandate and in-line with the rule of law. I urge an and every agency of government making-up the Inter-Agency Task Team to design corruption risk assessment within their organisations, and faithfully address leakages and weak links within the system,” he said.
According to Osinbajo, tackling corruption is a vital part of the current government’s economic revival, as he said systemic corruption chases foreign investors away from Nigeria.