Falana queries FG’s disobedience to valid court orders
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, (SAN) has questioned the federal government’s disobedience valid court orders in Nigeria and obedience to
The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, SAN had said a $200 million bond deposit has been made following the approval by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Nigeria has succeeded in securing variation of the UK court order from cash payment of 200 million dollars security to issuing bank guarantee of the same amount in respect of the P&ID scam
The minister said the Federal Government appealed against the payment of 200 million US dollars security component which was a condition for stay of execution of the judgment.“
The UK court granted the Federal Government’s request for variation of terms of the order seeking to provide
“Our application for variation of the order was allowed and we are as a result not making
“We remain in control of our funds by the act of acceptance of the guarantee.
“The advantage of the variation in the judgment from direct deposit of cash to posting of bank guarantee is that the money and its control resides in the Federal Government as against if it were otherwise”.
He said the success recorded so far in relation to the 200 million dollar securitydeposit is that it remained in our custody, and we are simply providing a document.“It is only when our case does not succeed, which we do not anticipate, that the court can order the withdrawal of the amount as stated in the bank guarantee”.
But Falana in a letter to Malami on Sunday, asked why didn’t the federal government give any condition before obeying the UK court as it does at home.
He asked the federal government to obey Nigerian court orders and release Omoyele Sowore, convener of the #RevolutionNow movement.
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“It is however disturbing to note notwithstanding such deference to the courts of its former colonial master the federal government has continued to disobey the valid and subsisting orders of Nigerian courts and the court of justice of the Economic Court of West African States including orders for the release of political detainees and criminal suspects from unlawful custody,”
“For instance, the State Security Service has continued to detain our clients, Messrs Omoyele Sowore and Olawale Bakare, in defiance of the order of the federal high court which has admitted them to bail pending trial.
“In treating the court order with provocative contempt the State Security Service has insisted on approving the sureties of our clients after they have been verified by the federal high court. From the information at our disposal, there is no precedent whatsoever for the illegal demand.
“Instead of purging the security agency of such contempt of the federal high court, the Prosecutor, Dr. Hassan Liman SAN, engaged by your good self to prosecute our clients, has curiously applied to the trial court to have them transferred to a correctional centre and detained indefinitely for having the temerity to question the illegal directive to produce their sureties.
“In view of the fact that the federal government has never given any precondition before complying with the orders of the British court in the case of P&ID and other matters we are compelled to request you to direct the State Security Service to comply with the orders of the federal high court for the unconditional release of our clients.”
