ABUJA—South South leader and elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, yesterday, asked the Attorney- General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, to, as a matter of urgency, apologise to Nigerians and the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, over President Muhammadu Buhari’s elevation of national interest above the rule of law.
The Ijaw leader who noted that national interest was a collective interest of all Nigerians that had been fully reflected in the 1999 amendment constitution, however, warned that no one should go outside of that to create national interest which should belong to him and which must be used against opponents.
Clark also asked President Buhari to obey the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS court judgment on the former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col Sambo Dasuki(retd), especially now that the President chairs the regional body and grant him bail, just as he condemned the continued detention of leader of the Shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, Ibrahim El- ZakZaky.
“For instance, if the ECOWAS court which today President Buhari is the chairman takes a decision on the detention of Dasuki, one expects that the government of Nigeria would obey. Not to talk about five courts that had already granted him bail, what did he do, nothing. Only suspected murderers are kept in prison until they are cleared of the matter.
“Some persons with serious cases have been granted bail. But it is not the same Nigeria Army that said certain members of Boko Haram have been radicalized and these are people killing Nigerians, bombing Nigerians. They are freeing them to become free citizens of this country. So what offence has El- ZakZaky from Zaria committed? It is because of religion, the same Muslim religion.
“So I see no reason why some people will sit in their houses as free Nigerians, the sacked Director- General of DSS, who was detaining Nigerians as if we were in the old days, military days.
“We are a free country, we are a democratic country, so it is not right for Mr. President to appear before lawyers, a conference of lawyers to tell them that national interest should overtake rule of law. Without rule of law, there is no country, without rule of law there will be anarchy. “
