By Abdul Mahmud
 |
| Mallam Aliyu Saleh |
(Press statement of the Public Interest Lawyers League, PILL)
In its October 2012
Report, ‘Nigeria: Trapped in the cycle
of violence’, Amnesty International accused the Joint Task Force (JTF) of abuse
of the fundamental rights of Nigerians and of ‘’showing little regard for the
rule of law’’. The Report, dismissed by our defence mandarins as biased and
mischievous, spoke to the truth that our people testify to everyday on social
media and documented the unspeakable reality of the scorched earth policy of
the Joint Task Force in its containment of Boko Haram. That scorched earth
policy of containment Amnesty International warned, “cannot achieve security by
creating insecurity’’ or ‘’by abusing human rights’’.
Today, Musa Mohammed
Awwal and Aliyu Saleh, journalists with the Kaduna-based Hausa Newspaper, Al
Mizan, arrested five days ago by operatives of the State Security Service for
reporting the flagrant and continuing assaults on the fundamental liberties of Nigerians,
are the sad examples of what Amnesty International drew global attention to.
Let it be stated that
the barn-storming nature of their arrests and continuing detention are reminiscent
of the jackboot years of Generals Buhari, Babaginda and Abacha when journalists
were arrested and detained for publishing truths and damning falsehoods.
President Jonathan is taking Nigerians back to that despicable era of impunity
they long bade goodbye. Our fundamental rights, and indeed the
freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information
without interference that the constitution guarantees practitioners of the
fourth estate, are not presidential guarantees or amnesties; they are the hard
earned victories of our peoples’ struggles.
Nothing in our
constitution grants the State Security Service the licence to derogate upon the
rights of Messrs Musa Mohammed Awwal and Aliyu Saleh to personal liberty and or
for it to hold on to them without trial, beyond the time frame as provided by Section
35 (5) (b) of the 1999 Constitution.
The Public Interest
Lawyers League calls on the State Security Service to without further delay
release Messrs Musa Mohammed Awwal and Aliyu Saleh, and or charge both
journalists to a proper court if it can establish any criminal charge against
them.
The Public Interest
Lawyers League further calls on the Attorney-General of the Federation,
Mohammed Adoke, SAN, as the Chief Law Officer stated by Section 150 of the 1999
Constitution, to uphold the sanctity of our Constitution in the face of the relentless
criminal assaults on the fundamental liberties of citizens by agencies such as
the State Security Service and the Joint Task Force. This is what is expected
of the Attorney-General in a constitutional democracy.
Abdul Mahmud
President, PILL
29th December 2012.
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