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| Femi Falana (SAN) |
CIVIL Rights Activist, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) has pitched his
tent against the grant of bail to politicians and public officeholders involved
in the looting of the country’s treasury stating that the equitable remedy
should not be extended since other capital offenders including murders are deprived
of the remedy.
On the other hand, the senior advocate condemned the position
of the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN) and Nigerian Bar Association
(NBA) over its silence on the activities of some of its members geared towards
frustrating prosecution of corruption cases in the country.
Falana made these remarks in a paper titled: “Rule of Law and
Treatment of Politically-exposed Corruption Cases” he delivered on Thursday at
the conference on anti-corruption war convened by the Department of Jurisprudence
and International law, University of Lagos where he was a keynote speaker
alongside Prof.Itse Sagay (SAN), Chairman of the Presidential Advisory
Committee against Corruption as chairman of the conference.
The Keynote speaker argued that if armed robbery, kidnap
suspects and treasonable felonies suspects are not admitted to bails, their
counterparts accused of looting the treasury should be treated alike as all
belong to the same family of crimes.
“Since victims of grand corruption including armed robbery
and kidnap suspects are not usually admitted to bail, those who are charged
with looting the treasury should no longer be granted bail.
“The body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria has urged the
federal government to fight corruption under the rule of law. On its own part,
the NBA has censored the Federal Government for violating the human rights of
certain suspects. But neither the BOSAN nor NBA has deemed it fit to caution
the members of the legal profession who are determined to frustrate the prosecution
of corruption cases.
“As far as both bodies are concerned, human rights are the
exclusive reserve of the bourgeois. , Hence, the tenets of the rule of law are
only invoked when the trial of VIPs is involved, while human rights are
violated in Nigeria when the looters of the treasury are arrested and detained
for a few days without trial.
“What was their reaction when 70 soldiers were recently tried
in camera, convicted and sentenced to death for demanding weapons to fight the
well-armed terrorists?
“What about the plight of 40,000 out of 52,000 prison inmates
who are awaiting trial under dehumanizing conditions”, Falana questioned.
Earlier, Prof. Sagay in his opening remarks lamented over the
rate of treasury looting in the recent times adding that if the trend is not
adequately checkmated, the nation will end up in shambles as impunity would
reign both intensively and extensively.
“I fear that Nigerians may become so sated with this daily
diet of financial brigandry that they may no longer feel shocked, disturbed,
angered and determined to see justice served on the guilty and their stolen
property recovered”, Sagay stated.
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