SOWORE

  • EMEKA NWADIOKE
  • Mar 07, 2022
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SOWORE: GADZAMA COMMITTEE VOWS TO FREE DETAINED LAWYER

The Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama SAN-led Nigerian Bar Association Security Agencies Relations Committee (NBA-SARC) has vowed to take urgent steps to ensure release of Mr. Abubakar Marshal, a lawyer remanded at Kuje Correctional Centre for allegedly standing as surety for firebrand human rights activist, Mr. Omoyele Sowore.

In a statement made available to CITY LAWYER, the committee frowned at the arrest and prosecution of the embattled lawyer, saying “that the Area Courts in the FCT cannot assume criminal jurisdiction” over a matter dealing with whether a suspect has jumped bail.

The committee assured that it is “presently taking urgent steps to ensure the immediate release of Mr. Marshal and that any defaulting party, be it the bench, the bar or any security agency alike, is appropriately sanctioned.”

It said that the arrest and remand of Mr. Marshal at the Kuje Correctional Centre “is a manifestation of gross impunity and conspicuous disdain for rule of law and the due process of law. Further to which we presently encourage anyone with useful information and/or evidence as regards all the facts and circumstances surrounding Mr. Marshal’s incarceration to urgently reach out to the NBA-SARC, to aid in the attainment of justice.”

Below is the full text of the statement.

STATEMENT OF THE NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION – SECURITY AGENCIES RELATIONS COMMITTEE (NBA-SARC) ON THE ARREST OF MR ABUBAKAR MARSHAL

Dear Colleagues,

1. In keeping with the mandates of the NBA-SARC, the Committee has taken cognizance of online media reports which inter-alia suggest that an Area Court sitting in Kabusa in the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja has ordered that a legal practitioner, Mr. Abubakar Marshal, be remanded in Kuje Correctional Centre till Tuesday, March 8, 2022, on the premise of filing a lawsuit on behalf of one Mr. Omoyele Sowore against one Mr. Ned Munir Nwoko.

2. Conversely, the NBA-SARC is further aware of contrary reports in some quarters that the police only arrested Mr. Marshal, who stood as Mr. Sowore’s surety for bail, when Mr. Sowore jumped bail. These contrary reports further claim that after Mr. Marshal on February 24, 2022, assured the Police of producing Mr. Sowore on the next date, being February 25, 2022, slated for continuation of investigation, neither Mr. Sowore nor Mr. Marshal was in attendance at the Police Station on the said date.

3. Assuming without conceding that Mr. Marshal stood surety for Mr. Sowore who allegedly jumped bail, the FCT High Court in the case of Gladys Chukwu v. Hon Gambo Garba FCT/HC/M/4499/19 and Barr. Anugo Ifeanyi Chuwu v. The Grand Khadi Sharia Court of Appeal & 2 Ors, FCT/HC/CV/2107/14 have held that the Area Courts in the FCT cannot assume criminal jurisdiction, and the instant circumstance is not any different.

4. We, therefore, unreservedly condemn this present illegality and are presently taking urgent steps to ensure the immediate release of Mr. Marshal and that any defaulting party, be it the bench, the bar or any security agency alike, is appropriately sanctioned. Indeed, the arrest and subsequent remand of Mr. Marshal at the Kuje Correctional Centre is a manifestation of gross impunity and conspicuous disdain for rule of law and the due process of law. Further to which we presently encourage anyone with useful information and/or evidence as regards all the facts and circumstances surrounding Mr. Marshal’s incarceration to urgently reach out to the NBA-SARC, to aid in the attainment of justice.

5. While we continue to call for collective support, please be reassured that all efforts are in top gear towards ensuring that justice prevails and that necessary sanctions are meted out to anyone found wanting in the present circumstances. It cannot be business as usual for injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere.

Long live the Nigerian Bar Association.

Thank you.

DATED THIS SUNDAY, MARCH 6, 2022

Signed:
Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama, OFR, MFR, SAN
Chairman, NBA-SARC

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SOWORE: ‘DO NOT INTIMIDATE JUDGES,’ UBANI WARNS DSS

The immediate past Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) 2nd Vice President, Mr. Monday Onyekachi Ubani has blasted the Department of State Security (DSS) for its refusal to release Mr. Omoyele Sowore, the Convener of #RevolutionNow.

He also lampooned the security agency for its alleged plan to drag Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court to the National Judicial Council over his decision to grant bail to Sowore. Justice Taiwo had refused to extend the 45 days detention order against the Sahara Reporters publisher and former students’ union leader.

Mr. Ubani said that he “is clearly at a loss as  how and when court’s decision has become a ground for petitioning NJC,” adding: “What is the allegation against Justice Taiwo Taiwo in the first place? Is it that he has no jurisdiction to release Mr. Sowore after the expiration of the detention order or that the court has lost all the powers under the law to make orders that do not favour DSS in Nigeria anymore? I cannot understand the meaning and substance of the alleged threat to petition him to NJC.”

Mr. Ubani warned that should DSS insist on the petition, “they must also not forget to report to NJC that it was the same Justice Taiwo Taiwo that granted them the detention of Mr. Sowore for 45 days in their detention centre. That information is very important to be disclosed to NJC.”

According to the human rights activist, “It is high time lawyers stood up against this calamitous destruction of the legal system by the security agencies in Nigeria. We lawyers cannot keep quiet anymore because they are trying to destroy the only area where we are operating, which is the court.

“Judiciary is the only place where we operate, so if they succeed in destroying it no one will have regard and respect for us and for the country. If lawyers allow the Judiciary to be emasculated by the executive we are finished, Nigeria is gone, the legal profession is finished.”

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