By EMMANUEL OGEBE, Esq

I am constrained by developments in Nigeria to interrupt my annual vacation to address critical issues currently in the news.

A. ISSUE ONE: GOVERNMENTAL ABDUCTION AND INTERSTATE TRAFFICKING OF HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER FAROTIMI

B.

Firstly I wish to denounce the travesty of governmental abduction and interstate trafficking perpetrated against my learned colleague and fellow human rights advocate Dele Farotimi.

A senior lawyer opined that, ?The courts in Ekiti State have jurisdiction to try criminal defamation, and all that the prosecution has to do? is to field one witness who will testify that the defamatory matter in the book was ?published? to him in Ekiti, and that he read it in Ekiti? It would matter not that Mr. Farotimi resides in Lagos, where defamation is only but a civil wrong, and not a crime?Once Farotimi enters Ekiti, whether voluntarily or by force, the criminal courts in Ekiti are automatically seised of jurisdiction to try him. That has been our law ever since the old Supreme Court case of PATRICK NJOVENS V. STATE! That principle was recently reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in NNAMDI KANU?s case, where the Supreme Court emphasized that the fact of KANU?s rendition into the country does not vitiate the jurisdiction of the criminal courts in Nigeria to try him.?

I am concerned that what was not a crime in the jurisdiction in which he lives became criminalized when he was forcefully abducted to another jurisdiction.

In peri-civilized legal systems, you would need to go to court to extradite the individual from Lagos to Ekiti for instance. The Lagos court may conclude that since it is not a crime in Lagos, it may not extradite him to Ekiti. In that event, the SAN would have had to resort to civil lawsuit which is pretty much generic across the country.

A classic case Is currently playing out in the United States where the suspected assassin of the CEO of my health insurance company was apprehended after an intensive manhunt in a neighboring state. As we speak, the suspect has not been transferred from Pennsylvania to New York, the scene of the crime, as there has to be a court hearing to authorize his extradition. Currently the suspect has objected to his extradition and will remain in Pennsylvania until the matter is heard and the court orders otherwise. If these constitutional courtesies can be accorded a person caught on camera murdering a VIP, doesn?t Farotimi as an officer of the court himself deserve to be extended same for a non-capital alleged crime?

Similarly, this abduction is not a good omen for the country. Are we saying that under our legal system, someone can be abducted from a bar in Lagos by the police, cargoed to Kano and tried in Kano for the offense of drinking alcohol under sharia law because money was transferred to him from a bank account in Kano?

We need to get serious and be a nation of laws. Right now we have ?Rule of lawlessness? not ?rule of law.? Ironically the same day Farotimi was being remanded in detention yet again, the prime minister of Israel was in court defending himself on corruption charges. These are countries where there are no ?big men? bigger than the justice system.

Already, Farotimi?s counsel have indicated that the iconic advocate was arrested and charged under a non-existent law. It is sad that this sort of executive lawlessness is happening now in Nigeria to a human rights lawyer. It is only in a jungle where creatures fight each other without a framework.

As the most prominent and outspoken international human rights lawyer in the Nigerian Diaspora, even the wicked Buhari regime never once abducted me while in Nigeria despite their campaign of calumny against me at home and abroad. The Buhari regime asked the US government to raid my house on suspicion that I had ?fake Chibok girls? but the US government declined that they don?t raid people?s houses unlawfully in America.

Having failed to use American state structures, Buhari enlisted the services of Doug Wead a rogue Republican operative and former special assistant to a US President to harass and serially defame me in the US media. Ironically, Doug Wead perished exactly three years ago on December 10, 2021 barely two months after he was charged with $100,000 fraud involving Russian funds and the Trump campaign. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/political-operatives-indicted-alleged-scheme-involving-illegal-campaign-contribution-2016

The lesson here is that Buhari is now gone from power and his American minion has also been destroyed by God. Nigerian rulers must see that Assad ultimately fell from power after slaughtering his people and destroying his nation to rule over ashes just this week after decades!

The fact is by the grace of God, I survived Gen. Abacha who abducted, detained and tortured me 28 years ago like is now being done to Farotimi but where is Abacha today? Farotimi should be freed immediately.

C. ISSUE TWO: JUSTICE IN GOV BONI HARUNA ELECTION CASE DENIES ALLEGATIONS OF BRIBERY

A Retired Justice of the Supreme Court who was one of the Court of appeal justices on the Boni Haruna governorship election panel said they were not bribed.

In his autobiography, he already revealed that another colleague who was not on their panel collected money unknown to them but they were not influenced by him or anyone. It is entitled ?Justice Under the Shadow of the Almighty? by Hon Justice JO Ogebe JSC (rtd). https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085KRP7KV

Recent reports say, ?A Wikileaks classified United States diplomatic cable has exposed how Nigerian legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola, and former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, way back in 2004 allegedly purchased a Court of Appeal ruling that ensured the then Adamawa State governor, Boni Haruna, remained in office.

According to the US diplomatic cable, an attorney for then Governor Haruna, who worked for Afe Babalola, confirmed that the favourable ruling by the Court of Appeal ?was ensured in typical Nigerian fashion: with cash.?

?The attorney, who works for Presidential attorney Afe Babalola, said that when President Obasanjo sent Babalola to take over the appeal, he also sent cash to be used for the appeal.?

?The attorney claims that he went along for the delivery of 30 million naira (about $225,000) to each of the five judges on the tribunal but did not know if this was all the money disbursed. ?This is the normal procedure when it is an important case,? he averred,? the Wikileaks document read.

Boni Yaruna, a staunch member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Obasanjo?s party at that time, was governor of Adamawa State from 1999 to 2007.

Afe Babalola has recently come under the radar in Nigeria over his use of the Nigerian police to arrest human rights lawyer, Dele Farotimi, from office in Lagos State ? an action that has received national and global condemnation from various quarters and human rights groups.

SaharaReporters reported last Tuesday that Farotimi was arrested and taken to Ekiti State for allegedly defaming Afe Babalola, a prominent legal figure, in his book ?Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System?.?

According to the Octogenarian jurist who is currently in Australia, three of the justices on his panel are now late but he is ready to cooperate with an investigation as he has already disclosed his own findings concerning alleged bribery in his autobiography.

I wish to point out that His Lordship was not even aware of this story that has gone viral in Nigeria until I brought it to his attention in Australia.

As the editor of his autobiography which we worked on for over 10 years because of the sensitivity of the revelations contained therein, I am familiar with the circumstances of the case. No post-judicial autobiography has shone a spotlight on corruption and pressures on the bench as candidly and extensively as this one. Fortunately for his Lordship, he addressed these allegations in writing on the record for four years now so this is not an afterthought.

I however lament the unfortunate situation where people will courageously stick out their necks to do justice without fear or favor only for their names and sacrifices to be rubbished decades afterwards. This is why many feel Nigeria venerates its villains and eviscerates its heroes.

It Is ironic that when his lordship last visited Australia as a serving justice on official trip, he flew business class. Today at 84 years of age, he is traveling there on economy ticket because in retirement he cannot afford the station of life he had as a judge and not being corrupt he can only do so much. Judicial work is a thankless job especially in Nigeria.

As a custodian of material facts, I stand ready to share what I know to any competent and sincere investigation into this matter. In the meantime, I call upon National Judicial Council and the Nigerian Bar Association to look into this issue and urge them to revisit his statement as previously raised in ?Justice Under the Shadow of the Almighty ? My Life Sojourn to the Supreme Court: Autobiography of an Distinguished Jurist? by Hon Justice JO Ogebe JSC (rtd).

?Being text of a statement issued on Wednesday, December 11, 2024, by International Human Rights Lawyer Emmanuel Ogebe to mark the 2024 International Human Rights Day.

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