July 24, (THEWILL) – Penultimate Thursday, July 14, marked three months since the National Council of State, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, granted amnesty to over 300 prisoners, among who are two high-profile personalities and ex-governors, Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyamme.
Several grounds were considered by the National Council of State before giving its nod to the proposal that amnesty be granted the said prisoners. Prominent among the reasons for this was illness and deteriorating health, to which category Dariye and Nyame belong.
With the pronouncement, legal luminaries argued that the freedom of the affected prisoners was to be effected within 24 hours, as anything more than that would amount to false imprisonment. The affected persons could also be entitled to redress by approaching the court of law to seek compensation for what is also tantamount to contempt of the law and presidential fiat.
According to legal experts, by virtue of the pardon, the Federal Ministry of Justice, having been the prosecutor in the cases that jailed the affected persons, is expected to immediately write to the authority of the Nigeria Correctional Service, officially informing it and confirming the state pardon as pronounced by President Buhari and endorsed and strengthened by the National Council of State, and direct the Service to unconditionally release those affected so as to enable them to return to their homes and join their families.
However, three months after the presidential goodwill and magnanimity, there is a disturbing twist to the matter, with a rumour making the rounds that the amnesty has been hijacked by desperate and daredevil politicians, who have a huge political capital to garner if the incarceration of the former governors continues. This perspective claimed initially that the calculation and objective of these political traducers and mischief makers was to ensure that the two former governors remain behind bars till after the political parties’ primaries in order that their release did not alter the projections and permutations of the primaries that were literally pre-determined.
In this regard, in Plateau State, the bad news circulating is that Governor Simon Lalong and other Dariye ‘boys’ in his administration have been complicit in the scheme and intrigues hatched to thwart the implementation of the amnesty and to that extent, frustrate Dariye’s release into the Plateau political space where his presence may turn into an elixir and reagent that will neutralise their own agenda to remain politically relevant and survive into the dispensation coming in 2023.
Lalong is accused of using his position as Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum to lobby an anti-Dariye/Nyamme community in the North, including encouraging the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to be continually ‘overwhelmed by state matters and unavailable to dispatch official communication to the authorities of the Correctional Service to implement the amnesty’.
While questions are being asked about who is sitting on or frustrating the presidential pardon and why nobody is asking questions as to who is challenging the President as the highest authority in the country, the office of the Attorney- General and Minister of Justice is being accused of complicity and deliberate cogs to extract some gratification from the agonising duo of Dariye and Nyamme or their acquaintances before he performs his official and lawful duty.
Three months ago, the excuse bandied by apologists of those sabotaging the process was that Malami was away in Saudi Arabia and thus, he was unavailable to dispatch official correspondence on the matter to the appropriate body.
More than 90 days on, Malami has not only returned from his ‘official engagement’ in Saudi Arabia, he has had enough time outside his official time to even marry a third wife in a colourful ceremony. And the question resonates: Who is disrespecting the President’s order and why is nobody asking questions?
A fortnight ago, a former Military Governor of Kaduna State, Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (retd.) called his directive, arguing that what matters more in the circumstances is the authority of the order not whether the order is well received by the people or not.
Last week, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Garba Pwul, in a chat with journalists, described as “immoral”, the refusal by the authorities concerned to execute the presidential pardon, in spite of the fact that the President is unarguably the highest authority in the land. Contending that the attempt by some authority figures to thwart the presidential directive amounts to contempt of law and is actionable, Paul also wondered why nobody is asking questions while the presidential order is being disregarded and advised the lawyers of those affected to take some steps to confirm those obstructing the presidential pardon, and eventually give life to the same instrument which was due to become operational within twenty four hours after pronouncement.
Last week, a coalition of groups against the continued incarceration of Dariye three months after presidential Pardon, in a press statement in Jos, commended the President, the National Council of State and Governor Simon Lalong on the state pardon granted their son.
Noting that the entire gesture is a demonstration of love and concern towards Dariye, his family, and the people of Plateau State, the group also said its “deep concern at the moment is the continued incarceration of Senator Joshua Dariye, Dr Jolly Nyame, and others despite the pardon granted them by National Council of State three months ago.”
The widely gaining impression among people is that a particular force or a conspiracy of forces is frustrating the execution of the presidential pardon for Dariye and others. Whether the President is aware is a probability that gives cause to the surmise that the subsisting refusal to execute the amnesty is manifestly and eloquently a case of bitter politics and corruption in high places.
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