RESPECT COURT ORDER ON BAKASSI, RIGHTS GROUP TELLS YAR’ADUA, WANTS LATE BABATUNDE JOSE IMMORTALISED

HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, HURIWA, a democracy inclined non-governmental group yesterday upbraided the Federal Government for making inflammatory and unconstitutional comments concerning the recent landmark ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, which restrained the Nigerian Federal Authority from completely transferring the ownership of the disputed Bakassi peninsula to Nigeria’s South Eastern neighbour Cameroon. The Rights Group also called on the Federal Government to truly and comprehensively immortalize the names and achievements of the late doyen of Nigerian Journalism- Chief Babatunde Jose who passed on recently to eternal glory.

Specifically, the Federal High Court, Abuja division, had made a binding restraining order to the Federal Government not to go ahead with the August 14th2008 handover of the remaining segments of the disputed areas in Cross Rivers State to Cameroon pending the determination of a suit legally filed by some prominent Nigerian citizens from Bakassi Local Government area. The International Court of Justice [ICJ] in The Hague, Netherlands had on October 10th 2002 in a non-binding and controversial judgment granted Cameroon the ownership of the long disputed oil rich Bakassi peninsular based on a matter instituted before it by Cameroon against Nigeria. The immediate past administration under General Olusegun Obasanjo had in disobedience of section 12 of the 1999 constitution illegally signed an agreement called the Green Tree Agreement conceding ownership of the disputed areas to Cameroon based on that controversial World Court’s verdict. Section 12 makes it mandatory that the National Assembly must endorse any international treaty or agreement to be entered into between Nigeria and other Countries. But the Special Adviser, media Communication to the president Segun Adeniyi in a statement averred that in spite the pending restraining order of the Federal High Court that the Federal Government was committed to transferring ownership of the disputed areas to Cameroon on August 14th 2008.

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria through its National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko in a media release made available to Journalists in Abuja, criticized the federal Government for making a public statement that cast aspersion on the integrity of the Court system in Nigeria which according to the Rights group amounted to a subtle disobedience of section 6 of the 1999 constitution and therefore presented the current administration as not having respect for the constitutional principle of separation of powers among the three arms of Government.

The Rights group averred that making public comments to the effect that despite the pendency of a Court Order that the federal authority would go on to implement a matter or policy being challenged before a competent Court of Law, or even making a statement that the Federal Government has already briefed the federal Attorney General to appeal the order even when it is clear that from the time the first Federal High Court order was made to the timeline of the proposed handover date which is August 14th 2008 is so short as not to accommodate the dispensation of an appellate matter arising therefrom the earlier order except if Government will perform magic, and according to the Rights group, the Federal Government’s posture shows that the Federal Government believes that the Court of Appeal is a market place or a SUPER MARKET where superior orders can be obtained by the Federal Authority to override lower courts restraining orders no matter the time constraints. The Rights Group also criticized the legal representative of the Cross Rivers State Government for saying that the Cross Rivers State Government will not obey the Federal High Court’s order because the International Court of Justice’s decision cannot be appealed against in Nigeria. The Rights group faulted this line of thought of the Cross Rivers State Counsel because the International Court of Justice is not within the contemplation of the Nigerian Constitution which is the supreme body of laws and Nigeria being a sovereign State cannot be subsumed under a Court system whose decisions are purely advisory and have in fact being disobeyed by the United States Government severally and the Heavens have not fallen. The Group recalled that over a decade ago, Canada won a case against the United States of America in the same International Court of Justice and the United States Government refused to comply with the decision of the World Court and the Security Council of the United Nations which America dominates has not sanctioned the USA for this disobedience. Why the double standards? the Rights Group asked. The interests of the Nigerians living in their homelands in Bakassi must be respected, it stated further.

HURIWA also called on the Federal Government to truly immortalize Babatunde Jose whose footprints left on the sands of times in the journalism profession in Nigeria are so monumental that Nigeria needs to immortalize them for generations yet unborn to drink from the fountains of his great wisdom.