Chinonye Obiagwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has given reasons the Attorney General of the Federal and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, should also be dis-invited for the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA.
He said that it was wrong for the organization to have apologised to the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, for withdrawing the invitation earlier sent to him.
Obiagwu, a member of the NBA National Executive Committee, NEC, said the association’s apology to the Kaduna State Governor was unnecessary.
Obiagwu said this when he appeared on Channel Television’s Sunday Politics yesterday, where he said the body of Nigerian lawyers should also withdraw Malami from speaking at the event.
“I must say that the apology of the present NBA is completely unnecessary because NEC has taken a decision; making an apology does not arise at all.
“I will have gone further to disinvite people like the Attorney General of the Federation because we have on record more than 50 orders of the court that have been disobeyed by this government and how will you get the Attorney General of that nation to come to NBA conference; the Attorney-General that says national security takes precedence over the rule of law and human rights,” he said.
Speaking further, the senior lawyer pointed out that the NEC did not just disinvite the Kaduna Governor because of the incessant massacre going on in Southern Kaduna, but also because El-Rufai, according to him, had been found wanting in obedience to court orders.
He warned that the NBA as a pressure group must not allow government officials that flout the rule of law at will in its fold.
He wondered why Governor El-Rufai has not been able to end the lingering crisis in Southern Kaduna, where hundreds of people are being slaughtered, insisting that the situation could be considered as genocide.
The senior lawyer maintained that the government of El-Rufai in its second term, “has done little or nothing to curtail the killings”.
Obiagwu added, “We don’t have records of people who have been properly investigated or prosecuted for huge, massive, and systematic massacres going on in Southern Kaduna.
“It is very appalling that a village will be razed down in a state where a Chief Executive is the Chief Security Officer and we don’t see the concerted effort, a commitment to bringing to justice those responsible for those massacres.”
