Abubakar Malami, minister of justice, says some people are taking advantage of the federal government’s respect for human rights and rule of law to commit insurgency.
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Speaking during a Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) programme on Tuesday, Malami warned that the Buhari administration will not sit back and watch those persons take up arms to render the government “helpless”.
The minister’s comments re-echoed President Muhammadu Buhari’s warning to those “misbehaving in certain parts of the country”, particularly in the south-east where government infrastructures have been under attack.
In condemning the attacks, some of which the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been accused of carrying out, Buhari had said: “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”
During the TV programme monitored by TheCable, Malami said the federal government has been magnanimous in respecting the rule of law and enforcing fundamental human rights.
“Perhaps what we are witnessing today in terms of impunity, insurgency could equally be attributed in one way or the other to a religious submission to the rule of law by the government,” he said.
“Consider chapter four of the constitution on the enforcement of fundamental human rights; people are now operating much more in breach as far as the fundamental human rights enforcement is concerned as against operating in such a way that the rights are intended to bring about a harmonious co-existence in the system.
“How can you imagine a Nigerian taking arm; one Nigerian killing over 100 people, only out of the spirit of perhaps the consideration for the enforcement of fundamental human rights.
“So, perhaps, what is unfolding today is on the account of religious observance of the rule of law as enshrined in the constitution.
“Rather than people taking advantage of the human rights principles in the constitution positively, they are perhaps using it outside the reign of constitutional consideration.”
The minister added that the Buhari administration remains committed to the rule of law “within the context of allowing the procedure and organs of government to operate optimally and effectively.”
“A single individual, within the context of public interest and the interest of justice, cannot unilaterally take a decision that will now render the judiciary, the executive and legislature helpless, perhaps all out of appreciation of purported consideration of the rule of law,” he added.
Recall that the security agencies are set to launch a “major offensive” in the south-east following the sustained campaign of arson on government buildings and killing of police officers since the turn of the year.
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