OPINION: THE NIGERIA MIDDLE-BELT’s IDPs AND THE UNREPORTED EFFORTS OF HON. EDWARD G. PWAJOK (SAN)

REALITYNEWSPAPER.COM.NG 

Letting The People Know

OPINION: THE NIGERIA MIDDLE-BELT’s IDPs AND THE UNREPORTED EFFORTS OF HON. EDWARD G. PWAJOK (SAN)

August 19, 2019 admin

By: Valentine Adese (JP),

It all started as a joke and rumour when indigenes of Nigeria North Central Zone (Middle-Belt) began to cry aloud that they were under attack.

The first hit were the famers in the zone, who could not go near their farms in early 2006 to 2007 across the belt, which led to prices of food stuffs and other produce of the farmers in this zone for over centuries, started becoming scarce and then pulling up prices.

Many farmers at this period under review in the middle belt, started to relocate from their farm houses to various towns/cities, to seek for white collar jobs, which are hardly available.

In late 2008, the states in the Middle-Belt, especially, Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba in the North East, began to experience human destructions, as killing of the farmers, who refused to relocate from their farm lands became targets of then unknown invaders.

The peak of the killings in Plateau State was at its zenith during the “Dogo Nahawa Massacre,” where both farmers and non-farmers, men, and women, (old and young) were killed.

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) within the zone continued to swell. In Plateau State, attempt by elected politicians to speak and address the IDPs in a designated area in Barkinladi, led to the death of two valuable sons of the state, Late Distinguished Senator, Dr. Gyang Dantong and Hon. Gyang Fulani.

The Killings continued up to 2014, before a new administration came in for most of the various north central (Middle-Belt) states in 2015.

The victory of most of the politicians, who won their elections during this period were very much based on their political campaign promises that, they would put their lives on the line for the killings in the zone to stop.

Their victory came and passed, but the killings are yet to be abated. The IDPs’ camps have continued to swell without adequate attention to the victims of “unknown provoked silent war of land”.

Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs) have put themselves and their resources on the line to bring hope and happiness to these IDPs, as various governments have also attempted to allocate funds for their welfare, health and education.

In the Middle-Belt, these government assistance and responsibilities seem to be more on paper and verbal speeches without commensurate action.

While justice is delivered in other parts of the country, especially, in the far Northern states and on the same IDP issues that, of the Middle-Belt has only received the granting of an order for joinder to benefit, which was later overruled.

The worst situation the IDPs are facing, especially, in Plateau and Benue States, is that there is no comprehensive data kept by the States or Federal Government with respect to their age, sex, health and educational standard. So, an IDP may get missing without trace especially with the on growing ritual killings in the country.

More to the pains of concerned Nigerians is the fact that, more killings are recorded in the country today, despite, those who promised to put their lives on the line for the people to bring peace in order to abate the killings have won the elections. Facts are that, the killings from reports have now gone circle and the situation have gone beyond the ability of the security operatives, to control.

Could it be interpreted that the Electees have began to fail the people of the Middle-Belt states again.

The killings from findings have jumped from their early Tens to Hundreds of Hundreds and the IDPs have increased into their Thousands. The killings in Agatu in Benue and Barkingladi/Jos South in Plateau States, readily comes to mind, as those killed in these areas have jumped to their Hundreds in recent times.

This is where the efforts of Edward Gyang Pwajok (SAN) from 2007 to 2015 need to be replicated.

E.D PWAJOK SAN

The ability to persuade the Federal Government to identify the perpetrators of the unending killings, the reason for their killings and the need to try them where they commit such heinous crimes, which Pwajok (SAN) had help to establish through the pronouncements of Courts and the Plateau State House of Assembly, as the then Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice need to be replicated and domesticated by the various states in the Middle Belt.

You would recall that in the course of identifying the whereabouts, of late General Ali’s body, his kidnapers or killers, the situation was about to become a military confrontation on the people of Du in Plateau State before caution was exercised, with the intervention of the House of Representatives through the holistic presentation of the matter by Edward Pawjok (SAN), to his colleagues in the 8^th Assembly.

It is therefore of human importance, that now that most politicians have won their 2019 elections on several grounds, the people of Nigeria Middle-Belt should hold them responsible and accountable for the welfare, relocation and security of IDPs in the zone.

FacebookTwittergoogle_plus

Share

Previous

WHY WE WANT THE TRIBUNAL TO UPHOLD OUR PETITION AND SACK HON. YUSUF ADAMU GAGDI—HON. GOLU, PDP

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Search for:

Recent Posts

OPINION: THE NIGERIA MIDDLE-BELT’s IDPs AND THE UNREPORTED EFFORTS OF HON. EDWARD G. PWAJOK (SAN)

WHY WE WANT THE TRIBUNAL TO UPHOLD OUR PETITION AND SACK HON. YUSUF ADAMU GAGDI—HON. GOLU, PDP

As Nigeria’s judges get set to cast the final votes in the 2019 elections

As Nigeria’s judges get set to cast the final votes in the 2019 elections

August 17

Every election cycle in Nigeria has three seasons. The campaign season belongs to the parties, the politicians and their godfathers. This is followed by the voting season, during which the security agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) hold sway. Thereafter, matters shift to the courts for the dispute resolution season, which belongs to the lawyers (mostly Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs) and judges.

Democracy may be about choices and decisions by citizens in theory. As practised in Nigeria, however, what is clear from these three seasons is that there is very little room in it for the average citizen. If they are anything, citizens are mostly spectators.

Election tribunals generally have about six months to decide on contested declarations by the INEC. With elections to federal offices concluded on 23 February and to state offices on 9 March 2019, we are now approaching the season where the courts must begin to announce their decisions. This is usually an uneasy time for candidates, parties, lawyers and judges alike.

Election petitions have become a major part of the work of judges around Africa and a defining moment in the public perception of the courts. Quite apart from being a moment of serious stress for the judges and lawyers who participate in them, election petitions are major sources of disagreements among judges.

In every election, the judges have the final votes. Of 1,490 seats contested federally and in the states in 2019, 776 (52.08%) will be decided by the courts. This is higher than 46.1% recorded in 2015 and 51% recorded in 2011 but lower than the high of 86.35% from the nadir of 2007.

Elections entail both choices and disagreements among all involved, including judges.In Nigeria, every election petition is heard by a panel of three, five or seven judges. Where they don’t agree unanimously, the judges will decide by majority vote. To win, a party must have the votes of two judges out of three (first instance); three judges out of five (appeal) or four judges out of seven (Supreme Court). Where there is such disagreement, there will be dissents. Disagreements among judges in elections petitions can mirror disagreements among citizens in the elections. More than any other area, election dispute resolution is replete with dissents

Few things are as interesting in judicial decision making generally as dissents, a subject matter on which sentiments diverge. Some judges and lawyers take the view that judicial dissents are “something like judicial treason.” William Douglas, whose 36 years as an Associate Justice make him the longest serving judge in the history of the United States Supreme Court described the right to dissent as “the only thing that makes life tolerable for a judge.”

The heightened role of judges in elections is essentially a feature of the presidential system of government. In Nigeria, Kayode Eso handed down the first notable dissent in this field in the Supreme Court  decisionin Obafemi Awolowo’s challenge to the victory of Shehu Shagari in the 1979 presidential election. While six of the Seven Justices led by Chief Justice Atanda Fatayi-Williams, ruled that the elections were in “substantial compliance” with the law, Eso, the junior Justice on the panel, filed a memorable dissent disagreeing with both the conclusion of the Court and its reasoning concerning the applicable burdens of proof.

The quality of decision making in election petitions has not always been clear. Sometimes, the decisions of the courts appear mutually contradictory or inexplicably divergent. Following the elections in September 1983, the Supreme Court of Nigeria was presented with two cases arising respectively from the governorship elections in Anambra and Ondo States. The issues were broadly the same. The then ruling party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was credibly accused of having rigged the elections in both states, enabling the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) to announce NPN candidates as winners when they should have been losers. In Anambra, there was a murmur of protest but the citizens mostly went back to their businesses. In Ondo State, the citizens decided to make the State ungovernable. On 31 December, the Supreme Court upheld the Anambra governorship election by a majority of six to one but by the same margin, the same court invalidated the Ondo election. Hours later, on the night of the same day, the military sacked the elected government in Nigeria,announcing Major-General Muhammadu Buhari as military Head of State.

It is not only in Nigeria that courts can announce incomprehensible outcomes in election petitions. In 2006, Uganda’s Supreme Court considered an election petition by opposition candidate, Kizza Besigye, against incumbent President, Yoweri Museveni. In its decision, the Court concluded that “there was non-compliance with the provisions of the Constitution, Presidential Elections Act and the Electoral Commission Act, in the conduct of the 2006 Presidential Elections”; that there was “disenfranchisement of voters by deleting their names from the voters register or denying them the right to vote” and that “the principle of free and fair elections was compromised by bribery and intimidation or violence in some areas of the country.” Nevertheless, Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki led three other judges in a majority of four to uphold the outcome in favour of Museveni.

William Hirt wrote that dissents among judges “like homicide, fall into three categories – excusable, justifiable, and reprehensible.” The decision of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal in the case concerning the contest over the Anambra South senatorial seat in 2004 produced a dissent in the justifiable category. It turns out that Justices Okwuchukwu Opene and David Adeniji apparently accepted gratification from or on behalf of Senator Ugochukwu Uba to hand him a favorable outcome. In May 2005, following the recommendation of the National Judicial Council (NJC), President Obasanjo fired them as Justices of Appeal. Justice Kumai Akaahs, who dissented in that case, currently sits on the Supreme Court and will retire on 12 December 2019.

Sometimes, the decisions in election petitions are plainly dodgy. When it decided the election petition against the outcome of the December 2012 presidential election filed by then opposition candidate, Nana Akuffo-Addo, on 29 August 2013, Ghana’s Supreme Court announced a majority of six against three in favour of upholding the declaration of President Mahama as winner. Economist, George Ayittey, would later write that the announced decision was “bungled. There was an inexplicable 4-hour delay in announcing the verdict, fueling speculation that something fishy was going on behind the scenes. Then Justice Atuguba announced a 6-3 verdict dismissing the petition. A day later, the verdict was changed to 5-4.” In a study of the judgment published in 2014 under the title The Burdens of Democracy in Africa: How Courts Sustain Presidential Elections, late Nigerian lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, showed that five of the nine Justices who sat on that election petition in fact ordered partial or total rerun of the election. In effect, rather than the announced majority of six –three in favour of President Mahama, the verdict was in fact five-four against him.

Election petitions often, if not nearly always, involve what Olu Adeniran of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, described in a 1982 article as “compromise between law and political expediency.” The ways in which these compromises are struck vary from case to case. The reasons and motives of the judges involved are also diverse. Quite clearly, however, the politicians watch the judges closely and do take notice. In 2007, Muhammadu Buhari, then opposition candidate who lost to Umaru Yar’Adua in Nigeria’s Presidential election, petitioned a tribunal. In the Court of Appeal, Sylvanus Nsofor dissented from the panel of three Justices. When the case went to the Supreme Court, George Oguntade, Aloma Mukhtar and Walter Onnoghen also dissented from the panel of seven, which ruled in favour of Yar’Adua.

When he eventually won the Presidency in 2015, Muhammadu Buhari appointed Oguntade, by the long retired from the Supreme Court, as his Ambassador to the United Kingdom and Nsofor, also long retired from the Court of Appeal, as his Ambassador to the United States. For some inexplicable reason, Buhari showed marked reluctance in appointing Onnoghen as Chief Justice in March 2017. In January 2019, shortly before another election that was fated to end up before the courts, Buhari brutally terminated Onnoghen’s judicial tenure.

Israel 🇮🇱

https://www.facebook.com/1434215680211765/posts/2159961674303825/?sfnsn=mo

Rep. Dr. Simon Mwadkwon Calls for Urgent Resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons

Rep. Dr. Simon Mwadkwon Calls for Urgent Resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons: The Member representing Barkin Ladi/Riyom Federal Constituency has called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency resettle the Internally Displaced Persons who are presently in camps across the State. He also said their is urgent need to rebuild public and private infrastructures destroyed in the Communities attacked by Killer Herdsmen. Rep. Dr. Mwadkwon stated this on the floor of the House of Representatives when he raised a motion of public importance even as he noted with great concern the mass murder of June, 2018 which affected over 20 Communities in his Federal Constituency. The communities are in Gashish, Ropp, Foron and Bachi of Barkin Ladi and […]

Gbong Gwom Jos Kinship. Ataa Aten seeking to join as co-defendant

Gbong Gwom Jos Kingship: Paramount ruler seeks to join as co-defendant

June 11, 2019 1:41 pm

Case

By Thompson Yamput

Jos, June 11, 2019 (NAN) The paramount ruler of Ganawuri, the Ataa Aten, Yakubu Chaimai, on Tuesday sought the leave of a Plateau State High Court to be  joined as co-defender in the suit challenging Governor Simon Lalong’s attempt to tamper with the Gbong Gwom Jos Stool.

Seven of the “illustrious sons of Berom nation”, had on May 23 dragged the state government before Justice Christine Dabup of State High Court, over its attempt at tampering with the composition of the Gbong Gwom Jos Traditional Council.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports in Jos that Gov Lalong had created two traditional councils out of the Jos Traditional Council, which did not go down well with the Berom nation, which filed a case challenging such action.

Consequently, the court on May23 issued an interim injunction stopping Lalong from tampering with the composition of the Gbong Gwom Jos Traditional Council.

Joined in the suit are Plateau State Government as the 1st defendant, while the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs are 2nd and 3rd defendants.

Others are the Chairman, Jos North Local Government, and Chairman, Riyom Local Government.

When the case came up for hearing on Tuesday, Chaimai, through his Counsel, Mr Titus Mann, announced his appearance and wish to join in the case as as a co- defendant.

“My Lord, l am Titus Mann, counsel, to the Ataa Aten of Ganawuri, who wish to be joined as a co-defender in this matter.

“We have already filed our processes with a motion on notice to join in the case,” Mann announced.

Mr Edward Pwajok, SAN, the plaintiffs’ lead counsel, had earlier told the court that the case was for hearing, but that he had received three different motions from the defendants.

“My Lord, we have a motion on notice that we hope to move today, but for the three motions we have just been served with, we cannot go on simply because we need to study them and reply to them.

“While one of motions seeks for the setting aside of the interim injunction this court had issued, another is seeking for an extension of time to reply to our motion on notice.

“The third one is the motion on notice by Mr Titus Mann seeking to join on behalf of the Ataa Aten of Ganawuri as co-defender.

“Your Lordship, in view of the fact that there is need for us to formally reply to these processes in the interest of justice, we hereby apply for a very short adjournment during which we would have responded to all the processes, “ Pwajok solicited.

Responding, the State Attorney-General, Mr Chrysanthus Ahmadu,  counsel to the defendants, who was represented by Mrs Rauta Dakota, a Director in the Justice Ministry, said, “that’s the true position of things My Lord.”

“We have filed two motions; one seeking for an extension of time to reply to plaintiffs motion on notice and the second asking the court to set aside the interim injunction it issued to the plaintiffs.

“Therefore, we are not objecting to the application for an adjournment,” She said.

Pwajok, however, notified the court of the interim injunction which he said still subsist pending the determination of the case,

After listening to the parties involved, Justice Dabup adjourned the case to June 24 for hearing.

NAN reports that the state government had on May 14 created Riyom and Jos North Traditional Councils out of the Jos Joint Traditional Council.

The creation of the two councils left the Jos Joint Traditional Council with only two local governments – Jos and Barkin-Ladi – instead of the former four.

The state government also announced that the Attaa Aten of Ganawuri would chair the Riyom Traditional Council, while the Ujah of Anaguta would head the Jos North Traditional Council.

Irked by that move, the seven petitioners, led by Mr Daniel Choji, “on behalf of themselves and all adult male Berom indigenes of Berom Districts in Jos North, Jos South, Barkin Ladi and Riyom Local Governments, rushed to the court to stop it. (NAN)

One Shot, Another Raped as Gunmen Attacks Plateau State University Bokkos

   

One Shot, Another Raped as Gunmen Attacks Plateau State University Bokkos

10JUN

Armed men alleged to be Killer Herdsmen attacked the female hostel of the Plateau State University (PLASU) Bokkos with sophisticated weapons.

The attack took place in the evening of Sunday 9th June, 2019.

During the attack that last hours unabated, one student was shot while another was raped by the attackers.

At the time of filing this report, students of the institution are seen demonstrating the act meted on the students.

They are calling on government and school management to put an end to the incessant attacks and harassment by the herdsmen on the students.

They said the Institution is at high risk considering how the criminal acts are being carried out without arrest of the culprits.

The students said they are vulnerable as the area is extremely volatile leaving the students at the mercy of the attackers who always carryout their heinous acts and leaves before the arrival of the security personnel.

The student shot has been rushed to the hospital for medical attention while lady raped is also being attended to.

Security have been deployed to address the situation though no arrest has been made.

HON. EDWARD PWAJOK, SAN FELICITATE WITH MUSLIM UMMAH

https://www.facebook.com/100001631850844/posts/2471128252951546/?sfnsn=mo