by Fredrick Nwabufo
After weeks of prickly suspense,
a high court in Kaduna has granted Ibraheem El-Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic
Movement in Nigeria (IMN), permission to travel to India for medical treatment.
The cleric has been in detention
for more than three years. In December
2015, soldiers raided his residence in Kaduna, wounding him in the eye and
killing some of his followers.
His health deteriorated while in
custody, and Femi Falana, his counsel, had expressed concerns, seeking medical
leave for him.
“The pellets had resulted in lead
poison and need to be urgently removed by highly professional medical
personnel,” Falana had said while speaking to journalists after a court
session.
The group has been feisty in its
demand for the release of its leader, but following the proscription, it
suspended daily protests to seek judicial intervention.
However, before the order of the
Kaduna high court granting El-Zakzaky medical leave, a court of coordinate
jurisdiction had granted him bail.
ORDERED TO BE RELEASED WITHIN 45
DAYS IN 2016
On December 2, 2016, Gabriel
Kolawole, judge of a federal high court, Abuja, ordered the release of
El-Zakzaky, who had spent a year in DSS custody. The judged asked the secret
police to comply with the order within 45 days.
He also awarded N50m in damages in favour of the cleric.
The government has now banned protests like this by Zakzaky’s followers |
“I have scrutinised the relevant provisions of the national security agencies act and with microscopic judicial lens swept through the 1999 constitution (as amended). I was unable to set my eyes on any provision. The first and second respondents’ counsel, T A Gazali was unable to cite any to the court in order to justify the detention of the applicant since December 14, 2015 in the first respondent’s custody in what was described as protective custody,’’ he held.
However, the federal government,
which held El-Zakzaky at the time, did not obey the order. This action ticked
off an avalanche of protests by his followers and prompted the condemnation of
many concerned citizens.
Will Kaduna state, of which Nasir
el-Rufai, the governor is a critic of El-Zakzaky, obey the order granting him
permission to travel abroad? Or will it
appeal against the judgement? But even if the state government intends to
appeal it; it must obey the order pending the appeal.
If not, what will that portend
for internal security? And will there be more protests in the streets for his
release?
SOME COURT ORDERS ARE NOT TO BE
OBEYED
The federal government, which
held El-Zakzaky in custody before his case was taken over by Kaduna state
government, had given reasons for its defiance to the court order releasing
him.
Adesina justified the continuous detention of the IMN leader |
In an interview on Channels TV, Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, said El-Zakzaky was being held because the government had filed an appeal against the judgment granting him bail.
“I know that the immediate past
AGF in whose purview it was to make pronouncements on that, address the issue.
If bail is granted and another case subsists and there is an immediate filing
of appeal, you have to wait till it is dispensed with. So, that is a legal
matter which is outside my purview but as a layman, an unlearned man as lawyers
would call us, we know that until all cases are dispensed with, you don’t say
that it has been concluded,” he said.
Also, Abubakar Malami, former
attorney-general of the federation, advanced reasons for the government’s
disregard to some court orders during his confirmation hearing at the senate.
He said some orders are not to be obeyed for the sake of ‘public interest’.
But is the law still sacrosanct
when there is selective enforcement? What does that say about respect for the
rule of law? Can a violator of the law be the upholder of it?
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