In the aftermath of the dastardly 9-11 bombing of the World Trade Centre, which arguably was one of the cynosures of the New York skyline as well as being a proud symbol of American capitalism, by the Al Qaeda Islamic jihadists led by Osama bin Laden, the US government responded by mounting a massive war of attrition against the attackers and any of their actual and perceived supporters. In the famous vengeful declaration of war by President George Bush at the “Ground Zero” of the fallen WTC, “whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.”
It was the fiery animus to exert overwhelming revenge that led the US to invade Iraq on the pretext that Saddam Hussein was amassing “weapons of mass destruction”, an allegation which turned out to have been concocted in order to justify an already concluded plan to invade Iraq, eliminate Saddam Hussein and bring the nations of Iraq and Afghanistan and her colluding neighbors to ruins as a deterrence to all those who might still be harboring any thought of attacking the US or her facilities anywhere in the world.
In the course of the invasion and other combat activities, most of the key terrorists responsible for the 9-11 attack were rounded up and the hardest of them were freighted to Guantanamo Bay, a tiny island within Cuba’s territorial waters but still under US occupation. These terrorists were subjected to the worst form of torture, psychological and physical humiliation, that are far removed from the jurisdiction of the laws of the US that would have compelled the government to accord them certain human rights.
EXPOSED!! POPULAR ABUJA DOCTOR REVEALED HIDDEN SECRET ON HOW MEN CAN NATURALLY AND PERMANENTLY CURE POOR ERECTION,QUICK EJACULATION, SMALL AND SHAMEFUL MANHOOD WITHOUT SIDE EFFECTS. EVEN IF YOU ARE HYPERTENSIVE OR DIABETIC ..STOP THE USE OF HARD DRUG FOR SEX!! IT KILLS!
The Guantanamo Bay prison was a hideous edifice chosen by the war hawks in Washington to shield the government from any possible legal obligation to treat those detainees with human dignity. It was a hidden place for unbridled cruelty and brutality and as a UN Report puts it, it was a site of “unparalleled notoriety.” They indiscriminately administered high-voltage electric shocks and waterboarding interrogation techniques. It was that type of horror imagery that came to mind last Friday at an Abuja High Court when accused persons that were arrested and detained for the August 2024 #EndBadGovernment riots that rocked the nation to its foundation were herded into the courtroom.
Of course, one cannot legitimately deny that these detainees did not deserve to be arrested and prosecuted within the boundaries of the law because they actually behaved badly. They might have been misled not to see the differences between the constitutionally protected right to peacefully protest and tendentious political subversions or agitations calculated to undermine duly constituted authorities in the name of “peaceful protests” which is itself both unconstitutional and therefore legally punishable.
We all saw the defiant flying of foreign flags and, in particular, the Russian flags, acts which constituted a clear and present danger to the democratic government of Nigeria, judging by the recent unsavory anti-democratic and unconstitutional usurpation of power in three land-locked neighboring francophone countries, a development which they were openly canvassing also for Nigeria.
The phenomenon of police brutality is an old one in the country, dating back to the colonial days, which has now become pervasive. Detainees are usually treated like Guinea Pigs for practising brutality by members of the police system. So, those haggard-looking detainees must have been tortured and brutalized while in police custody. The optics, whether contrived or not, was unquestionably gory. Even though what they did is forbidden by the Nigerian Constitution, the same Constitution also protects them from torture, degrading and inhumane treatment while in custody.
The truth however is that both the Nigerian State and some citizens alike have not been playing by the rules as we have repeatedly seen how high-profile criminals are brought into courtrooms in customized wheelchairs and Olympics specs stretchers, pretending to be dying just to hoodwink the courts that are apparently already disposed to finding flimsy excuses on which to set them free, thereby enabling them to continue enjoying their loots, all at great costs to the society.
Advertisement
These prosecutorial abuses coupled with judicial racketeering perpetrated in favor of the rich and powerful in society have almost become the norm; they habitually bend the laws in favor of rich and powerful thieves and treasury looters while they go extremely draconian when sentencing petty thieves and street urchins with disproportionately long and harsh prison terms.
It is ironic that in the same week when a clearly garrulous member of the House of Representatives, a certain Alex Ikwechegh, blatantly lied on camera that he is “a Senator” while brutally slapping and assaulting an innocent and law-abiding Nigerian citizen that those rioters were brought to the court. The now viral Ikwechegh video depicts a totally lawless human being who should have NO further business inside a decent Parliament in a decent society.
For his all his criminality, he was granted bail in the paltry sum of N500,000. But when it came to the turn of the poor rioters who,in all probability, were lured by some criminally-minded politicians, their bail bond was ridiculously set for N10,000,000 (ten million naira)! What a joke and what an obvious abuse of judicial discretion!
A billionaire legislator is being asked to post the sum of N500,000 bail bond while the poor “#Endbadgovernace” detainees must bring ten million Naira (N10,000,000)! There ought to be ‘judicial notice’ of the fact that legislator carts home millions of Naira regularly in stupendous allowances and ‘constituency projects ” which is an insidious euphemism for the “Honourables” to corruptly siphon public funds into their expansive pockets. They are the privileged offenders who usually feign blackouts, dramatically fainting and slumping while inside courtrooms but are strong enough to suddenly appear at political rallies making nonsensical speeches to unsuspecting crowds.
Is it not curious that the security agencies went only after the poor hired protesters who had no idea what they were protesting against beyond the hackneyed sloganeering about the extreme hardship brought about by the reform policies introduced by the Tinubu government but are being insensitively implemented. The fact remains that it is the politicians who fund and equip the rioters who innocently carried offensive politically-laden banners and placards sometimes upside down. Why are they not the ones being tried for what they criminally planned and remotely executed? These obvious prosecutorial disparities are what blunt the moral edges of the case being made by the authorities – injustice in their accusations.
The Police and other law enforcement agencies tend to look the other way by arresting obviously ensnared rioters while leaving the brains behind the whole operations untouched. I would have loved to see some of those faces who were on radio and TV spin rooms propounding tactics and strategies for the riots alongside the ignorant foot soldiers in the same courtroom.
I am happy that the office of the Attorney General of the Federation has stepped in and promptly ordered for the casefiles to be transferred to his office for proper reconsideration within the parameters of the criminal justice system, which holds every accused person innocent until proven guilty. The better news really is that President Tinubu has since graciously directed that all the detainees should be released from custody. Considering that they have already spent more than three months in detention, the A-G could now reach for the nolle prosequi.
All said, people must be prepared to account for their criminal activities while the State, in holding them accountable, should also strive to respect the offenders’ civil liberties which mere allegations do not take away from them until judicially found guilty. All that is really required in the circumstance is that there has to be substantive justice on the part of the prosecutors in the processes of arrests, detention and the formulation of charges up to the point of actual trial.
