Falana wants soldiers to stop wearing uniform outside barracks

According to him, some soldiers, while wearing uniform outside the barracks, provide cover for criminals and help them to beat security checks. Falana said this in Lagos while delivering the 19th Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture last week. He cited the case of notorious kidnap suspect, Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, alias Evans, whom, he said, had a soldier escort in his gang. “We must stop the wearing of uniform by any soldier in town. That boy, Evans, any time he had kidnapped in any part of the city, a soldier, a corporal, will be with the driver in the front and anytime they got to a checkpoint, esprit de corps, they would salute the criminal. The corporal, after investigation, they found N96.5m in his account. But if we make it impossible for soldiers to be in uniform outside the barracks, we can stop some of the criminalities going on in our country,” Falana said. He reiterated his argument that President Muhammadu Buhari must allow the courts to determine what amounted to threat to national security. Falana added, “The problem of the rule of law in Nigeria is a problem of Nigerian lawyers. You know why? In 1988, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation now, Mr Boss Mustapha, was the chairman of the Yola branch of the Nigerian Bar Association. A single court order was disobeyed by the (Ibrahim) Babangida junta, Boss Mustapha brought that report to the NBA meeting and Alao Aka-Bashorun was then the NBA President; and he said no, the court order must be obeyed. And the entirety of the Nigerian lawyers went on a boycott of courts to enforce a single court order. Today, many court orders are being disobeyed and the Nigerian Bar Association is not bothered and that is why we are in this trouble.”]]>