SANs, others condemn police invasion of N’Assembly Prominent lawyers in the country on Friday condemned the invasion of the National Assembly by the police. Among those who spoke separately with our correspondent on the telephone condemning the incident were Senior Advocates of Nigeria – Messrs Femi Falana, Tayo Oyetibo and Yusuf Ali. Also Chairman of Ikeja Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Yinka Farounbi, his predecessor, Mr. Monday Ubani, and another Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Fred Agbaje, also described the invasion of the police as barbaric. Falana said the police action was part of the plot to remove the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, but that the move was foiled by the majority members of the House. He said it was a repeat of such assault that had been in the past unleashed on the Rivers, Edo and Ekiti state Houses of Assembly. He said, “The brutal police attack was part of the plot to remove the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, and install a stooge by a minority of legislators. “But the coup has been foiled by the majority for now. In Rivers, Edo and Ekiti state Houses of Assembly, the police had launched similar assault in a desperate bid to install puppet leaders to satisfy the powers that be.” Ali, who lamented the large contingent of policemen deployed to the National Assembly, when the country was facing high level security challenges, described the incident as an unwarranted drama. He said, “It is an unwarranted drama. We have more serious, more challenging issues on our hand. What happened yesterday showed that we did not appreciate the big problem Nigeria is in. “A country faced with high level of uncertainties and insecurity and police who ought to complement the efforts of security in Nigeria with reckless abandonment were deployed to the National Assembly, where there was no protest, no fighting or warranted the deployment of such contingent of policemen.” Oyetibo condemned both invasion of the police and the gate climbing by the House of Representatives members. He said, “There are two aspects to the crisis – the invasion of the legislature by the police and the gate climbing by the supposed honourable members. The honourable members were doing what a schoolboy would do and he would be suspended. The police too must be told that we are in a democracy and in a democracy you allow peoples’ view to be aired. You do not kill peoples’ opinion or views or ideas by tear gas.” Agbaje sad “the gratuitous attack on the National Assembly by the security agents acting on behalf of the Federal Government is not only violative and primitive of the cherished principles of separation of power upon which our present democratic experience revolves but an unplalatable thre to our democracy and rule of law.” On his part, Farounbi said the “barbaric act” is “the best example of a character that is not expected of a civilized society we are being turned to the ages of might is power.” Ubani said the incident “was a show of shame and a minus for us in global perception.” He added, “Who authorised the Security Agencies(Nigerian police and SSS) to lock the entrance of the National Assembly? In whose interest? I thought that it was the President who wrote to both chambers seeking the extension of his emergency rule in three states in the North East of Nigeria?”
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 21:07:04 +0000
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