By
Gbenro Adeoye
 |
| Bamidele Aturu |
In this interview with GBENRO ADEOYE,
lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, says the Anambra State
Government and its indigenes involved in the alleged deportation saga should
sue the Lagos State Government for “heavy damages”.
The Lagos State Government has come out
to say that it did not deport some indigenes of Anambra, but only rehabilitated
and resettled them. What do you make out of this?
As far as I’m concerned, there is no
way anyone can sensibly defend what Lagos State government and its officials
did by forcefully taking some citizens of Nigeria out of Lagos and dumping them
in Onitsha.
That action is unacceptable, it’s a
clear violation of the constitution of Nigeria that the government of Lagos and
all our public officials swore to uphold and defend at all times. Section 41 of
the constitution is very clear, it says, “A citizen of Nigeria is entitled to
move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof, and no
citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereto or
exit there from.” In other words, you can move freely from one part of Nigeria
to another, regardless of where you come from, ethnic origin, status,
employment status or your means. I read one of them saying that the people are
not in control of their faculties, if somebody was not in charge of his
faculty, how then did they decide where they came from? Why not take them to
Akure or Ibadan?
But is their (Lagos) claim
legal within the ambit of the law?
The constitution is in very plain
language, not in esoteric language. To take those people away, for me, is
immoral, indefensible, and I’m surprised that some people can actually defend
what the Lagos State Government did.
I can understand that you have taken a
decision out of frustration with your planning efforts and then you made a
mistake. Then say, ‘No, gentlemen, we can’t defend this,’ and you keep your
mouth shut. I’m not saying that people should be ethnic conscious in all they
do, because you should always criticise what is wrong, but for me, to come from
the East and to defend the position of Lagos as some persons have done, I’m
really shocked that this is happening in our country. We have thrown honour to
the winds, we no longer have values. Why do we call black, white and white,
black in Nigeria all the time?
But what is really wrong with what they
have done considering the population explosion in Lagos?
What Lagos State Government and its officials
admitted they did, taking people out without their consent from Lagos State is
indefensible.
I think we must make it plain that what
they have done is also discriminatory. Section 2 of the constitution says, “A
citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin,
sex, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such a
person- a) be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical application
of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action of
the government, to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of
other communities, ethnic groups places of origin, sex, religion or political
opinions are not made subject of.”
In other words, it’s discriminatory and
a violation of the freedom of movement of those people, and above all, in my
view, it is an immoral and a wicked action targeted only at the poor, it’s
because of their status and the ethnic group that they were subjected to this
indefensible, atrocious, illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional executive
action of the Lagos State Government.
If they say there was a law those
people breached, were they the only ones who broke the law? What about people
from other states?
There is no way I’m going to support
anybody in defending this nonsense because it is discriminatory. If you look at
the trend, it appears Lagos State in particular has been targeting the poor.
Are you also saying that
Lagos State Government is anti-poor and that probably informed the move?
In fact, I like the way they are
trying to turn around the secondary schools but that doesn’t mean I will
support them blindly in all things. I don’t want to live in a country where I
will support people blindly. So, it’s not because we hate them. There are many
areas of the state government’s activities that I also endorse but because I
support that doesn’t mean I must support them blindly in all things.
Those who are shooting their mouths
should give Nigerians some respect; they should know that what the Lagos State
government has done is unpardonable.
I expect the state government to
apologise to Nigerians, apologise to those people and make restitution and
never do this kind of thing again. What they have done is a violation of the
law until the constitution is amended.
For as long as they continue to see the
punishment of the poor as the only way they can make Lagos a better city, as
being tantamount to creating a peaceful and prosperous Lagos State, we will
continue to challenge them.
Look at the trend; it is either they
are wiping out okada, wiping out keke Marwa or demolishing what
they consider to be shanties, how can this government be only interested in
fighting the poor or waging a war against the poor? You cannot build a mega
city on the graves of the poor because the poor will never vanish from our
country until you begin to do the right thing to ensure equity and justice. The
poor are not poor because they wish to be poor; their condition is a
consequence of the maladministration, corruption, culture of waste and rapacity
of the ruling elite all over Nigeria.
Are you faulting the Mega
City plan of the Lagos State Government?
We have a ruling elite that is
extremely corrupt all over Nigeria, one that is only concerned about
artificialities of governance. Maybe they travel to Dubai, London or other
cities and then see beautiful places, they don’t know that beautiful places
don’t emerge from the blues; it takes the toil and sweat of the people as a
whole and governments that are not corrupt but committed to building societies.
You don’t just say that because you have seen a decent street in Oklahoma and
then come back and want to replicate that and then say all the people living on
a particular street should leave and you demolish their houses.
So what do you think that the Lagos
State Government should do about its population congestion?
The way to do it is to ensure that you
make laws, you take care of people and whatever you do must be in accordance
with the law. If people sleep under the bridge, that is not a crime, and nobody
wants to sleep under the bridge by the way. You then create houses for
everybody, get the Federal Government to work, you stop all those frivolous
jamborees that you do. We have enough money to take care of everybody. They
have no right to write a letter to anybody that they want to expel any Nigerian
or take them to anywhere. This is targeted against the poor.
Lagos State was developed by the
collective efforts of Nigerians, our forefathers. If we concentrated efforts in
Warri or any other place, it would overtake Lagos. We can’t say we don’t know
the history of how Lagos became what it is today.
The Lagos State Government said it sent
letters to the Anambra State Government to inform them about the purported
resettlement. Does that serve as a defence for their action?
Why would you write a letter that
you want to commit illegality? Why would you write a letter that you want to
violate Section 41 of the constitution? If that letter was ever written, it’s
an illegal letter, an unconstitutional letter. Why would you write a letter
that you want to violate the rights of the citizens of Nigeria? If I was the
governor of Anambra, I would not dignify that letter with any reply.
Some lawyers have argued
that the Lagos State Government has a Lunacy and Environmental Law that gives
them the power to get the destitute off the streets. Does that defend their
action?
Any law, whether lunacy or
environmental, that says that the government of a state can expel, deport or
take a man or a woman away against his or her consent is unconstitutional.
Because section 1 (3) is very clear, it says, “If any other law is inconsistent
with the provisions of this constitution, that other law shall to the extent of
the inconsistency be null and void and the constitution shall prevail.”
The Lagos State Government has said it
would no longer tolerate people leaving their states to come and beg in Lagos
and sleep under the bridges. Is that not enough reason to take a drastic
action?
Is the Lagos State government not
begging the World Bank for money? Are they not collecting money from outside?
If that’s the case, all governments in
Nigeria are also beggars, because we have resources, and what do we have? The
governments go all over the place begging for money in our name. Now, do we
expel them from the international community because they are beggars? There is
nothing they can do for as long as all the state governments and other
governments are begging, because they do that as well, when we have all the
resources we need. If you make resources equitable, all these problems would
never be there.
But can these people sue
the Lagos State Government?
Why not? I think that what the
other governor should have done is to bring those people back to Lagos State or
try filing an action on their behalf in court and claim heavy damages against
the Lagos State government.
What if their case gets thrown out or
they don’t get what they consider to be justice from our local courts, can they
take it to an international court?
They should take it
to the international courts. We have the ECOWAS Court and the AU mechanism; you
can even call it a crime against humanity, anything you do to make sure that
this thing is not repeated again. I think this is very sad and Nigerians should
make this very clear that we will not support this kind of thing no matter who
is doing it.
Source: The Punch
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