Anxiety mounts as a disconnect between the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Nigeria Correctional Service continues to keep two former governors and other prisoners in jail after pronouncement of presidential Pardon. UGAR UKANDI ODEY interrogates the development as he examiness the perspectives and intrigues at play
Last Thursday, July 14, marked three months since the National Council of State, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, granted amnesty to over three hundred prisoners, among who are two high profile personalities, ex-governors Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame. Several grounds were considered by the NCS before giving nod to the proposal that amnesty be granted the said prisoners; and prominent among these reasons was illness and deteriorating health, to which Dariye and Nyame belong.
With the pronouncement, legal luminaries argue that the freedom of the affected prisoners was to be effected within twenty four hours, as anything more than that will amount to false imprisonment, and the affected persons could also be entitled to redress by approaching the Court of law to seek compensation for what is also tantamount to contempt of the law and presidential fiat.
According to legal experts, by virtue of the pardon, the Federal Ministry of Justice, having been the prosecutor in the cases that jailed the affected persons, is expected to immediately write to the authority of the Nigeria Correctional Service, officially informing it and confirming the State Pardon as pronounced by the President and endorsed and strengthened by the National Council of State, and direct the Correctional Service to unconditionally release those affected to return to their homes and join their families.
However, three months after the presidential goodwill and magnanimity, there is a disturbing twist to the story; with talks making the rounds that the amnesty as pronounced has been hijacked by desperate and daredevil politicians who have a huge political capital to garner if the incarceration of the former governors continues. This perspective claimed initially that the calculation and objective of these political traducers and mischief makers was to ensure that these two former governors remain behind bars till after political party primaries in order that their release did not alter the projections and permutations of the primaries that were literally pre-determined.
In this regard, in Plateau State, the bad news circulating is that governor Lalong and other Dariye ‘boys’ in his administration have been complicit in the scheme and intrigues hatched to thwart the implementation of the amnesty, and to that extent frustrate Dariye’s release into the Plateau political space where his presence may turn an elixir and reagent that will neutralize their own agenda to remain politically relevant and survive into the dispensation coming in 2023. Lalong is accused of using his position as Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum to lobby an anti-Dariye/Nyame community in the North, including encouraging the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami to be continually ‘overwhelmed by state matters, and unavailable to despatch official communication to the authorities of the Correctional Service to implement the amnesty’.
While the questions are being asked: who is sitting on or frustrating the Presidential Pardon, and why is nobody asking questions as to who is challenging the President as the highest authority in the country, the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice is being accused of complicity and deliberate cogs to extract some gratification from the agonizing duo of Dariye and Nyame or their acquaintances before he performs what is his official and lawful duty.
Three months ago, the excuse bandied by apologists of those sabotaging the process was that the Attorney General and Minister of Justice was away in Saudi Arabia, and thus was unavailable to dispatch official correspondence on the matter to the appropriate body. More than ninety days on, Abubakar Malami has not only returned from his ‘official engagement’ in Saudi Arabia, he has had enough time outside his official time to even marry a third wife in a colourful and creamy politico-social ceremony. And the questions resonate: who is disrespecting the President’s order, and why is nobody asking questions?
A fortnight ago, former Military Governor of the erstwhile Kaduna State, Col Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (rtd) called the President’s attention to this subsisting disloyalty and disobedience of the Presidential directive, arguing that what matters more in the circumstances is the authority of the order not whether the order is well received by the people or not.
Last week, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Garba Pwul, in a chat with journalists, described as “immoral”, the refusal by the authorities concerned to execute the Presidential Pardon, in spite of the fact that the President is unarguably the highest authority in the land. Contending that the attempt by some authority figures to thwart the presidential directive amounts to contempt of law and is actionable, Pwul also wondered why nobody is asking questions while the presidential order is being disregarded, and advised the lawyers of those affected to take some steps to confirm those obstructing the presidential pardon, and eventually give life to the same instrument which was due to become operational within twenty four hours after pronouncement.
Last week, a coalition of groups against the continued incarceration of Dariye three months after presidential Pardon, in a press statement in Jos, commended the president, Muhammadu Buhari, the National Council of State, and Governor Simon Laong on the State Pardon granted their son.
Noting that the entire gesture is a demonstration of love and concern towards Dariye, his family, and the people of Plateau Sate, the group also said its “deep concern at the moment is the continued incarceration Senator Joshua Dariye, Dr Jolly Nyame, and others despite the pardon granted them by National Council of State three months ago”.
The widely gaining impression among people is that a particular force or a conspiracy of forces is frustrating the execution of the Presidential pardon for Dariye and others. Whether the President is aware is a probability that gives cause to the surmise that the subsisting refusal to execute the amnesty is manifestly and eloquently a case of bitter politics and corruption in high places.
