(Onitsha Nigeria, August 8, 2016)-The emergence of Acting Inspector General of
Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Kpokum Idris may have unveiled a new dogari
policing for Nigeria. That is to say that the primitive Hausa-Fulani
policing methods specializing in collection of taxes, guarding Emir palaces
and arresting and jailing tax defaulters and others considered by Emirs as
Emirate enemies, all according to whims and caprices of the Emirs, may
have been brought to the fore by the Acting IGP, with two major instances being
the reckless abandon with which the Acting IGP has ordered his personnel to
flood Nigerian roads and retire at every evening with bagfuls of officially
robbed naira notes; and the rush and speed with which he set up a five-man
criminal probe panel to selectively and illegally investigate the House
Speaker, Yakubu Dogara over a clearly non-criminal conduct correctly called “Padding of the 2016 Budget Bill”; leaving
behind other partakers, aiders and abetters. The action of the Acting IGP is a
height of trial by ordeal and selective application of justice.
By the
summary account of the Black’s Law
Dictionary, 9th Edition (2009), trial
by ordeal is a judgment of man passed on his fellow man without
recourse to written law and principles of the rule of law including fair
hearing. This is substantially, if not totally derived from hearsay,
unsubstantiated and unverified accusation(s). By the plain language of Section
36 (8) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 under right to fair hearing, no
person shall be held to be guilty of a criminal offence on account of any act
or omission that did not at the time it took place, constitute an offence, and
no penalty shall be imposed for any criminal offence heavier than the penalty
in force at the time the offence was committed. Also by the plain
language of Section 36 (11) of the same Constitution, subject as otherwise provided by
this Constitution, a person shall not be convicted of any criminal offence
unless that offence is defined and penalty therefore is prescribed in a written
law, such as an Act of the National Assembly or a Law of a State.
Further,
for a crime to be committed in Nigeria, it must be composed of guilty
act (actus reus) and guilty mind (mens rea); with exceptions being strict
and statutory liability offences (i.e. sanitary, utility bills and
traffic offences). A crime mandatorily requiring police investigative and
prosecutorial involvement is not a crime unless it is mandatorily composed of seven
elements of crime; namely: actus reus, mens rea, legality, harm,
causation, concurrence and punishment. Conditional Defences to Crime, particularly
crimes
against persons, property and collective security crimes; are duress,
underage,
insanity, entrapment, self defense and necessity. A conduct can be
unethical, yet it does not make it a crime unless it is criminalized as a
code-crime with prescribed penalty; usually under mala prohibita (a conduct
defined as a crime by a given society or political territory, or part of it) or
mala
inse (codified crime bearing universal application).
It is
therefore the observation of the leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
(Intersociety) that selective justice has risen to an apogee in
Nigeria and trial by ordeal justice system fully returned. Recourse to
rule of law and due process is already nailed and crucified. Fundamental issues
of extreme public and national importance dominant in criminal justice,
economy, security and political sectors are recklessly and brazenly brushed
aside for issues of acutely infinitesimal relevance which now dominate the
national and daily discourse. The latter include Aisha Buhari’s trip to USA,
Ekweremadu must go and Senate Rule 25 forgery campaign, Budget Padding and
Dogara must go campaign, Okezie Ikpeazu ousting campaign, to mention but a few.
Sadly, as
much as 140 unarmed and defenceless youths of the Igbo-Nigeria extraction were
massacred in Onitsha, Nkpor and Asaba on 30th of May 2016 by
soldiers of the Onitsha Military Cantonment under the 82 Division of the
Nigerian Army and joined by personnel of the Nigerian Navel and Nigeria Police
Force. As if that was not enough, over 120 of them were abominably and
violently buried in secret mass graves located inside Onitsha Military
Cantonment and within Airport area in Asaba on 2nd and 21st
June 2016, respectively; yet no State controlled or independent television
outfit in Nigeria has empanelled any discussion forum on same till date. As we speak, no single perpetrator has been
arrested and put on trial by the Nigeria Police Force led by Acting IGP, Ibrahim
Idris.
As much
as 809 unarmed and celebrant members of Shiite Muslim movement were either
massacred or made to disappear till date in Zaria by the Nigerian Army on 12th
and 14th of December 2015. In all these, all the frontline media,
activist lawyers and social advocacy institutions including the National Human
Rights Commission have gone chronically deaf and dumb; with exception being a
conscientious fraction such as the likes of Barristers Ebun Olu Adegboruwa and
Femi Fani-Kayode; Governor Peter Fayose of Ekiti State, the authorities of the
Galaxy TV and leading Nigerian Online Media mostly of Southeast and South-south
domination.
Though our advocacy attention is too
busy to be occupied by national irrelevancies such as the
so called Budget Padding, but we feel deeply pained watching the country’s social institutions and values being bastardized, corrupted and
destroyed on daily basis and with reckless abandon by those who ought to be the
custodians of the country’s public morality, decency and
uprightness, especially when some of them go by the hallowed titles of their
excellencies, their lordships, senior learned counsels, senior comrades, etc.
Legally and criminologically speaking,
we are not in the know of any criminal law in Nigeria where act of Padding of a Budget Bill is unambiguously
defined as a criminal offence with prescribed penalty or penalties; yet the
Acting Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Kpokum Idris has rushed and
hurriedly set up a five-man criminal investigative panel, headed by AIG Amodu
Ali to selectively and illegally investigate the House Speaker, Yakubu Dogara
and about four others. The Presidency has consistently targeted the House
Speaker, the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President for removal at
all costs following their independent and popular emergence in June 2015 as
principal leaders of the 8th
National Assembly of Nigeria; upon which the Presidency has labeled them forgers
of Senate (National Assembly) Rule 25 of 2015. The Senate President and
the Deputy Senate President are presently being prosecuted by the Presidency
for “forgery”.
The constitutional and statutory powers
under which the Acting IGP empanelled the criminal probe team to investigate
the alleged Padding of 2016 Budget Bill, unknown in Nigeria as a
criminal offence; are yet to be located in any law in Nigeria. As the Acting
IGP is busy pursuing shadows and engaging in acts clearly outside the law, his
personnel in their thousands deployed on Nigerian roads, particularly in the
Southern part of the country; are busy robbing motorists and other road users
with reckless abandon through extortion at gunpoint of N50.00 and N100.00 note
per motorist and road user. Through the entrenched culture of returns,
the Acting IGP and his operational sub commanders are again smiling to the bank
vicariously on daily basis; which is why we invited and still
invite all Nigerians and members of the international community to make trips
to Nigerian roads across the country so as to assess the effects of the Buhari
administration’s anti corruption on Nigeria and Nigerians.
For the purpose of setting the records
straight, Budget Padding is technically a practice that some people use
in business or government budget proposal when submitting a budget for
executive management or governmental executive or legislative approval for the
purpose of adding, subtracting, increasing or reducing the projected
expenditures or projects. It is commonly done in government and legislatively,
when a budget is yet to be signed into law by the legislature and the
executive. Executive approval of a budget is sealed when a legislatively
approved budget bill is signed into law by the president or the governor and
legislative budget approval is secured when it is legislatively passed by the
National Assembly or a House of Assembly of a State with required yes voice
votes.
Unethically speaking, legislative and
executive arms in Nigeria have been caught in the web of Budget Padding over
the years. This they have consistently done by preparing and approving over-bloated
budgets containing excessive fiscal votes for overheads and frivolous
allowances for themselves including the so called security votes; with most
of their funding sourced from borrowings.
The executive arm had steadily engaged
in spurious spending spree leading to use of retroactive supplementary budgets
for the purpose of legitimizing the spent funds. The legislative arm had
consistently connived with the executive in the perpetration of the unethical
fiscal conduct under reference. The extra budgetary spending by the executive
with retroactive supplementary cementation as well as incomplete implementation
of the approved budgets particularly the capital budgets is clearly a criminal
offence and act of corruption than padding of a budget bill.
Technically speaking and by law, budget
bill padding process is not a crime, though its intents may constitute
unethical conduct, but not a crime, except codified as crime. But any altering
done in the budget after it has been legislatively and executively passed into
law are expressly a crime and an act of corruption; which is why a
process of supplementary budget was created and conventionalized. The
supplementary budget is created for three reasons: (a) to reduce the originally
projected projects or expenditures on account of decline in revenue targets,
(b) to increase originally projected revenues or projects on account of increase
in projected revenues, and (c) to provide for emergency spending and situations
in the event of eruption of war or natural disasters.
Sadly, these established credible
budgetary processes have consistently been observed in gross breach by the
successive military and civilian governments in Nigeria and their legislative
or pseudo legislative arms since 1997, which was the last time Nigeria recorded
credible budget with over 47Billion surplus under the Abacha military regime. We
have already challenged the authorities of the Nigeria Police Force, the EFCC,
the ICPC and Office of the Attorney General of the Federation to show prove
where in the country’s written criminal laws it is clearly stated that act of padding a budget bill (act
done before the legislative and executive passage of the budget bill into law) is
a criminal offence punishable under a prescribed penalty or penalties. The
authorities are again called upon to educate all Nigerians and members of the
international community on the criminality or otherwise of the subject matter.
Where they continue to fail in this
regard, then it will be totally safe to submit that they have cemented our
informed submission that selective justice and trial by ordeal is
back and on rampage in Nigeria. It will further mean that Acting IGP,
Ibrahim Idris acted unconstitutionally, ultra vires and despicably by ordering the criminal probe
outside the law and his constitutional and statutory powers.
However, if the authorities under reference are able to prove to all
Nigerians and members of the international community that padding of a budget bill
is a crime in Nigeria, then the instant case has consumed both the executive
and legislative arms in the country, not just the House Speaker and about four
others. That is to say that President Muhammadu Buhari should be investigated,
having aided and abetted (i.e. signed the budget into law when he knew that it
was legislatively “padded”). Other executive accomplices are the Minister for Finance, the Accountant
General of the Federation and the Attorney General of the Federation, while the
legislative culprits are the Senate President, the House Speaker, the Clerk of
the National Assembly and the Chairmen of the Senate and the House Committees
on Finance and Appropriation.
Finally, the Executive Arm of
Government in Nigeria led by President Muhammadu Buhari and its open and secret
police (DSS and NPF) are hereby called upon to steer clear of the National
Assembly and its principal leaderships particularly the Senate President,
Bukola Saraki, the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and the House
Speaker, Yakubu Dogara. That is to say that the leaderships of the National
Assembly of Nigeria must be left alone by the Presidency of Gen Muhammadu
Buhari and be allowed to serve Nigerians legislatively. The Executive Arm must
also respect the hallowed principles of separation of powers, checks and
balances and independence of the legislature and allow the law to take its full
course in the event any of them is found wanting under the laws of the land.
Signed:
For: International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
(Intersociety)
Emeka Umeagbalasi(Criminologist & Graduate of Security Studies)
Board Chairman
Mobile Line: +2348174090052
Website: www.intersociety-ng.org
Obianuju Igboeli, Esq., (LLB, BL)
Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
Mobile Line: +2348034186332
0 comments so far,add yours