Some Presidential, Governorship Aspirants Facing Corruption Trial Seek Power To Get Immunity — Falana SAN
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has said some of the political aspirants for the Presidency and governors in their respective states are awaiting trial in cases involving billions of naira and want to get into positions of power simply to enjoy immunity.
Falana tasked the Nigerian media to query politicians who are seeking leadership positions about their intentions and what they would pursue when elected into power.
He said, “It’s only in Nigeria where we do not question those who want to govern the people, we must begin to find out, “What have you managed in your life?”, some of those who want to be President now are standing trial, I’m sure you must be aware, for allegedly stealing billions of naira, to get immunity so that the moment they are elected, you forget their case, that’s why they are seeking to become President or governors.
“I can tell you it’s not going to be business as usual, the young people are asking questions, workers are also asking questions. We are not going to leave the affairs of our people to politicians alone, and you guys in the media too must help our people.”
Speaking on the insecurity challenge in the country, the legal luminary said the Nigerian military, as it stands, could not confront terrorists and successfully overpower them.
Falana opined that Nigeria had the best military personnel but who were grossly underequipped.
He said, “In Nigeria, we have some of the best soldiers but they are grossly under-equipped and unmotivated, the terrorists are well-armed, our troops cannot confront them successfully.
“Whether you are talking of UN Peace Keeping operations, ECOMOG, our armed forces have performed very well. I defend Generals, soldiers. I defended a General, he wrote letters to the then Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh; he said, for us to secure a location, we would need to build a fence and the CDS asked him how many kilometres and he said 8km, but the CDS said, there was no money, anything beyond 1½ kilometres, we can’t do it.
“Two weeks later, the terrorists struck and the General was charged for all manners of offence that he was a coward and so on. We went back to produce evidence of letters sent to the Chief of Defence Staff, if you gave us the weapons, the boys are ready to fight, those weapons weren’t provided.
“Also, 60 other boys were charged, they said give us weapons, we’re ready to fight, until their commander was abducted with about five other soldiers, it was at that stage, the weapons were provided.
“They now used these weapons to rescue their boss and the others and defeated the terrorists. The guys were still charged with mutiny, convicted and sentenced to death; that is what is going on.
“Now the media is to ask the National Assembly, the President, the money they are approving for procurement of weapons, what happens to the funds?; this is important.
“If you hire mercenaries, you pay them well; make the money available to your own security personnel. Our policemen, when they go out, they do well but here the equipment are not made available.
“Go to a police station today to lodge a complaint of the most serious offence in your neighbourhood, even to write your statement, you will be charged. That is why criminality is on the rise in our society. It’s not about looking for mercenaries but equipping our armed forces to perform their constitutional duty.”
