When Attorney General becomes a high jumper Category: Point blank Published on Sunday, 30 March 2014 05:00 Written by Tonnie Iredia Hits: 50 0 Comments In several countries, the position of Attorney General is usually held by a lawyer because the holder is expected to serve as the permanent legal adviser to the government. In Nigeria, it is one post that has always attracted top legal experts especially during the military era. At a point, it was resolved that only a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) could be the Attorney General of the Federation. For us, the position is crucial because unlike some other jurisdictions, the holder of the office in Nigeria is also a member of the Executive Council in charge of the Ministry of Justice. With our return to democracy in 1999 however, many people have come to detest the dirty roles of the holders of the office both at federal and state levels. Let us begin with the role of the Attorney-General in the famous June 12 1993 elections. When Justice Bassey Ikpeme sought to use a late night order to stop the holding of the election a few hours to D-day, public disapproval pushed the government to use its Attorney General to support disobedience of Ikpeme’s orders by the electoral body. Thus the election was held. A few days later, when Justice Dahiru Saleh issued a summons threatening to jail Professor Humphrey Nwosu and his principal electoral commissioners for alleged contempt of court, the new position which they could not disobey was also served on them by the same Attorney-General, Clement Akpamgbo. During the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, government lost all its cases against Vice President Atiku Abubakar because the lawyers in government led by the Attorney-General were seeking to solve legal issues politically. Although they were not political advisers, they knew that only politics could be used to work to the answer. Indeed, the former President had been encouraged to cancel the 2007 elections in States like Enugu until he was fortunately reminded by outside sources that once the result of an election had been announced, only an election tribunal could nullify it. When it was the turn of President Musa Yar’Adua, it was Michael Andoakaa that came on board as Attorney General. Following the failure of the President to hand over to his vice when he left for treatment, there were calls and counter moves for the impeachment of the President, for such a lapse. Andoakaa told the nation that our President was omnipresent and could govern from any part of the globe. It was even alleged that he officially thwarted cases of corruption against government supporters In the case of the present government, there are many examples. For instance, Nigerians watched on national television a row between Governor Oshiomhole of Edo State and Mohammed Bello Adoke, Attorney General of the Federation over the politics of the arrest and trial of some suspects in the murder of the Governor’s trusted aid. Was Adoke the problem? Why indeed, do many people both the high and the low point at an Attorney General when government plays games with justice? Here, a good example comes from Plateau State where not too long ago, the judiciary ordered a stay of action on plans to truncate the tenure of council chairmen in the state. The government ignored the order prompting the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru Musdapher to forward a strongly warded letter on the subject not to the Governor but to his Attorney General, Edward Pwajok At about the same time, a judge of the federal high court in Benin, Justice Adamu Hobon took a rather drastic action on a legal tussle which dates back to 2003 between the Edo State Government and a private investor- Churchgate Industries Limited. The court had granted an injunction in favour of the private investor which government failed to honour. Strangely, Hobon decided to use his power and office to compel compliance by convicting the Attorney General as the legal representative of government. He consequently jailed Dr Osagie Obayuwana the then Attorney General of the State. Many analysts including this writer thought it was a cruel decision because Obayuwana came to office only in 2009, six years after the order in question was made with none of his predecessors harassed at any time. In addition, the Edo State government claimed that Obayuwana never received the personal service of the required forms “48 and 49 as provided by law that would have led to the contempt of court. Anyone who wants to know why our Attorneys General have suddenly become endangered species needs to hear the story of last Tuesday in which the Police arrested the Nasarawa State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Innocent Lagi, for allegedly scaling the fence of the State House of Assembly to serve a court order. Lagi was at the Assembly to serve the officials with a court injunction restraining them from summoning the chairmen of the State Independent Electoral Commission and his commissioners to appear before them. The denial of access to the complex reportedly made the Attorney general to jump over the fence, prompting the legislators to order security officials to arrest him. So, what exactly do our politicians want to make of the rule of law in our democracy when legislators thwart the service of court summons prompting an Attorney general to become a skilful high jumper? Of course, nothing will happen to either our overgrown school children in the legislature or the high jumper because the office of the Attorney General will enter “Nolle Prosequi” (do not prosecute) to thwart any action on the case. It has always been so. As far back as the Second Republic, the thugs that destroyed ‘Shagari Houses’ built by the Federal Government in Oyo State were arrested but the State Attorney General used the device to frustrate their trial. The lesson for those who are clapping for the latest edition of our unending national conferences is that whatever is agreed and recorded would only serve as the letter of the law; the spirit of the law is a different ball game that is never covered in any conference.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 19:16:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015