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Dele may have died of natural causes.

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Having accepted it, Babangida should be arrested. He no longer enjoys any immunity. Section 308 will not apply to Babangida. He is an ordinary citizen. He must be arrested immediately, placed in custody, arraigned before the court of law, prosecuted by the ministry of justice and should be made to face the music and if found guilty, he should be hanged. That is the only way by which he should be seen, not to be above the law of the country.

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I Will Hang IBB and Abdulsalami If...

Gani Fawehinmi, SAN and presidential aspirant speaks with Tobs Agbaegbu, associate editor on the raging controversy about the recommendations of the Oputa panel on Human Rights Violations in Nigeria . Excerpts:

Newswatch: Can you please let us know your opinion on the recommendation of the Oputa panel which was submitted to President Obasanjo recently?

Fawehinmi: I dont have a copy of what was submitted yet. But I have been reading from newspapers and magazines that wide ranging recommendations were made, including linkage of IBB with the Dele Giwa murder case and Abdulsalami Abubakar with the death of M.K.O. Abiola. People are now asking where do we go from here. The nation must show that crime, of whatever magnitude, committed by any one is punished. That is the only way we can maintain law and order, and respect for sanctity of life.

If Oputa came to that conclusion which I believe is right, the logical sequence is that Obasanjo owes a duty to his oath of office, to uphold the provisions of the constitution of 1999. And one of its 320 provisions is the right to life. That right to life was also in the 1979 constitution and the military did not abrogate it.

At the time Dele Giwa was murdered, he had his right to life which was snuffed out of him. Therefore, Obasanjo owes a duty, to his oath of office to the constitution of Nigeria , to the rule of law, to orderly arrangement of the Nigerian polity, to the sanctity of life and to God to accept that recommendation under the Tribunals of enquiry act.

Having accepted it, Babangida should be arrested. He no longer enjoys any immunity. Section 308 will not apply to Babangida. He is an ordinary citizen. He must be arrested immediately, placed in custody, arraigned before court of law, prosecuted by the ministry of justice and should be made to face the music and if found guilty, he should be hanged. That is the only way by which he should be seen, not to be above the law of the country.

Secondly, once you do that, the highly influential, the well connected, the highly placed people in society, who have been riding rough shod over the laws of the nation, will now sit up and say that the law rules. Unless you do that, the law will continue to be treated with disdain. Personality will be above legality and injustice will continue to thrive. Unless that is done, the whole recommendation will come to zero.

Newswatch: You are campaigning to be president. If Obasanjo fails to take your advice and you win, what will you do to IBB, Abdulsalami and others, on the Oputa recommendation issues?

Fawehinmi: (Prolonged laughter) One of the immediate acts I will take as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is to dust the file in respect of Dele Giwa, call on Abubakar Tsav who was investigating , call on my minister of justice and call on the inspector-general of police to go and arrest the man called Ibrahim Babangida, and tell the police to conclude their investigation immediately. Minister of justice, arraign Babangida before the court, and let the course of justice take its turn. And if he is found guilty, I am not going to use prerogative of mercy. I will not use bomb to blast him the way he blasted Dele Giwa’s life out of existence. I will use the ordinary process of hanging which we have under the law. The hangman is there and his life will be taken in accordance with the law if he is found guilty. I have no doubt in my mind that he committed the offence. I have never had any doubt since 1986, so that will be the first of many acts I will take as president.

In conjuction with that I must fight injustice for people to know that there is no big man. I must arrest Babangida for killing Dele Giwa, I will arrest Abdulsalami for his role in Abiola’s murder and investigation will be done. He himself will face music for killing MKO Abiola. I will set few examples to show that no big man is above the law of the nation.

Newswatch: Let’s look at the recommendation, as it relates to Buhari whether the report condemned where he killed some cocaine pushers through a retrospective law and recommended that the military junta be held responsible for the death of the cocaine pushers.

Fawehinmi: Yes, they killed many cocaine pushers, no doubt about it. It is the retrospectivity that was condemned. You know, so many cocaine pushers were killed. It is the retrospectivity that was condemned concerning the first three that were killed. That is why in the constitution now, you don’t have retrospective laws. Well, once there is a recommendation, there is no way they would not be tried. I don’t know his defence but retrospectivity was found against the rule of law. Of course, I have no tone of the defence counsels but I know that retrospectivity is what is frowned at by the law of our country. Even in the present constitution and in the 1979 constitution. But for Abdulsalami, his case is a more serious one. Let me tell you. There are two serious murders in the history of this country. The first was Dele Giwa. You see these people are supposed to protect us and not eliminate us as citizens. The way Dele Giwa was killed is dastardly. They way they treated me because I said I wanted justice for him and the society was abominable. Now when you look at that of MKO, it has another dimension. I don’t see why Babangida should not partake in that dimension. If Abacha had lived, he will be part of that conspiracy. If June 12 was not annulled, Abiola would not have died. So, either as an accessory before the fact or whatever Babangida is connected in one way or the other to what befell Abiola . Two, Abiola won an election, he was incarcerated, Abacha was responsible. But the man who did the act and the way he did the act, made him an accessory before the fact. The day he was to be murdered information was that he called two of his wives to Abuja who met him. Abdulsalami then asked them to go. After that, they were still at the airport, no plane has left when they called them back. If I were the president of this country today, Ehm, if Obasanjo does not accept that recommendation, then he would need to be examined for culpability. There are rumours that Babangida met Obasanjo when he came out of prison that he should come and become president, Obasanjo retorted that Abiola is still there and Babangida answered that he should forget that. That aspect should be investigated. Once Babangida told Obasanjo to forget that, and they took care of that. So, Abdulsalami was working hard in glove with Babangida. That is why I said Babangida must be an accessory before the fact. So, if Obasanjo does not accept that recommendation then he must be tried when he leaves office.

Newswatch: It is reported that IBB has gone to court to stop the implementation.

Fawehinmi: Yes. We have equally applied to be joined. He did it in year 2000 when Oputa was about to sit. First, he said his life was not safe in Lagos . I told Oputa to take us to anywhere and then we went to court. He got an order that they should not compel him to appear. That court did not say that Oputa panel should not continue. There was no order against Oputa that he should not inquire into the death of Dele Giwa. There was no order that I should not be there. I then applied that I should be joined and I was joined as a co-defendant with Oputa. The matter is still pending at the Supreme Court. Now Oputa submitted his report as a tribunal should: You did not go to court to stop him submitting. I don’t know where he got the information from about the recommendation. It was after Oputa has submitted that he went to court. I doubt if it was the committee member that leaked it. Somebody must be at the presidency who leaked it to Babangida. And we want to know who.

Secondly, he is saying the recommendation should not be implemented. What recommendation? You did not attach it. I have a copy of the application he filed. He did not attach the recommendation he wants the court to stop. It’s just speculative. He is afraid to show to the court what the recommendation was, and where he got it from. And that is why I want to join. We want to know where he got the report from, and to know also, in this country, where there are abuses of power, whether people put in charge of the affairs of the country leak secrets to their friends, we want to know. That is the danger we are facing. If he knew about the recommendations before the report was submitted, he would have gone to court to stop it from being submitted. So Oputa is absolved. His commission absolved, so he did not know. He went to court after the report was submitted, so he knew about its recommendations after it was submitted. The question is: Who did? The presidency is guilty.

Newswatch Volume 35 No 25, June 24, 2002

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