What Buhari’ll Consider To Grant Request For Kanu’s Release — AGF, Malami

*Why FG Hasn’t Declared Bandits As Terrorists After Court Order
Says FG to deploy Super Tucano against bandits, terrorists

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), says the President Muhammadu Buhari, will consider the interest of over 200 million Nigerians before he grants the request for the release of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

Malami spoke on Tuesday as a guest on NTA’s Good Morning Nigeria.

Recall that some respected Igbo elders led by Minister of Aviation in the First Republic, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, visited the President in Aso Rock and requested the unconditional release of the detained secessionist leader.

Asked on Tuesday about the request by the Igbo leaders, the AGF said Buhari would consider the interest of over 200 million Nigerians before he takes any decision.

The minister also said the President considered public interest as against the interest of sectional groups when he refused to assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill.

Malami said, “By way of general statements to the two issues presented: the issue relating to electoral bill and the issue relating to Kanu and by extension, IPOB, what I can tell you for certain is that the decision of the President is based fundamentally and at all times on public interest consideration.

“In the art of governance and what I have come to learn about the mind and heart of the President, Muhammadu Buhari, is to consider the 200 million as against the limited people.

“By extension, the issue of Kanu, what would as well govern the decision of the President in terms of whatever request is presented is the public interest as against limited sectional interest of it.”

Kanu, 54 from Abia State was first arrested in 2017 for demanding the secession of the South-East zone from the Nigerian State.

However, he jumped bail in June 2018 before leaving for the United Kingdom, though he said that he fled because his life was no longer safe in Nigeria.

After about three years abroad, Malami at a press briefing in Abuja on June 29, 2021, announced that the IPOB leader was re-arrested in a foreign country and extradited to Nigeria though Kanu’s lawyers said he was re-arrested in Kenya and whisked to Nigeria.

Upon his re-arrest in June 2021, Kanu was re-arraigned before Justice Binta Nyako for terrorism-related charges brought against him by the AGF office. Kanu has since been remanded in the custody of the Department of State Services in Abuja while his trial is to continue on January 18, 2022.

Also He said his office was in the process of gazetting a court judgement that ordered the government to declare bandits as terrorists, adding that the process would be concluded in a matter of days.

States in the North-West geopolitical zone including Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Kaduna have been ravaged with banditry in the last year. The nefarious activities of the marauders have also spilt into the North Central and other zones in the country. The bandits have killed hundreds of innocent persons, kidnapped several others including schoolchildren, with some still in their custody, while some are nursing injuries sustained during the attacks.

There has been clamour by many Nigerians including socio-political groups that bandits should be declared as terrorists like the bloodthirsty Boko Haram insurgent group.

Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja on November 26, 2021, had granted an ex parte application by the Federal Government for Yan Bindiga (Hausa word for gunmen) and Yan Ta’adda (Hausa word for terrorists) to be declared as terrorists but the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has not done so over a month after.

Whereas in the case of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Malami was able to gazette the designation of IPOB as terrorists on the same day that Justice Abdu Kafarati gave the order on September 20, 2017.

Speaking on Tuesday, Malami said the government acted swiftly in declaring IPOB and Boko Haram as terror groups because of the “threats to lives and properties they have caused in the nation.”

He said, “Government has a responsibility to act but within the context of acting, you equally expected to operate within the confines of international best practices associated with engagement and one of such best practices is that you can only use maximum force on groups, individuals that are declared terrorists and that is where the application of the Terrorism Act comes in place.

“With that in mind, Nigeria acted, first by proscribing IPOB, taking into consideration the threats to lives and properties they have caused in the nation. Boko Haram was proscribed.”

The AGF noted that the “good results” arising from outlawing IPOB and Boko Haram buoyed the government to consider the proscription of bandits, and the use of military hardware against the marauders.

He said, “Now, we are confronted with another threat in the North-West associated with banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling and in all these, these people are using weapons to attack Nigerians, kidnap them and created a situation of serious security challenge and fear in the system.

“Whatever military hardware you acquire there are limits within the context of the international convention as to how it can be used, when it can be used and against who it can be used. And that is how the idea of looking at the activities of the bandits, cattle rustlers, kidnappers come into being.

“Our assessment taking into consideration that they are causing a major threat to the territorial peaceful co-existence and causing a major threat to lives with weapons, the idea then came about that indeed they (bandits) have satisfied the criteria of being declared terrorists within the context of the law so that whatever military hardware at the disposal of the Federal Government can best be used against them within the context of the international convention and within the context of the law.”

On why his office has not gazetted the court order designating bandits as terrorists, the senior advocate said, “The gazetting of a court order or judgement is a process but what matters fundamentally within the context of international convention is the judicial declaration and that has been obtained; the court has declared bandits, kidnappers, cattle rustlers as terrorists.

“So, with or without the gazette, what gives effect to such declaration is a judicial pronouncement but the gazette is a mere formality and it has been on and I believe within a matter of days, it will be concluded.”

He also said his office was in the process of gazetting a court judgement that ordered the government to declare bandits as terrorists, adding that the process would be concluded in a matter of days.

The military had been reluctant to deploy the aircraft outside the North-East because of the conditions attached to the sale of the aircraft by the United States, which was anchored on human rights.

But the AGF said on Tuesday that the coast had become clear to deploy the Super Tucano aircraft against bandits in the North-West and North-Central, following the court order declaring them as terrorists.

He said, “Now, we are confronted with another threat in the North-West associated with banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustling and in all these, these people are using weapons to attack Nigerians, kidnap them and created a situation of serious security challenge and fear in the system.

“Whatever military hardware you acquire there are limits within the context of the international convention as to how it can be used, when it can be used and against who it can be used. And that is how the idea of looking at the activities of the bandits, cattle rustlers, kidnappers come into being.

“Our assessment taking into consideration that they are causing a major threat to the territorial peaceful co-existence and causing a major threat to lives with weapons, the idea then came about that indeed they (bandits) have satisfied the criteria of being declared terrorists within the context of the law so that whatever military hardware at the disposal of the Federal Government can best be used against them within the context of the international convention and within the context of the law.”

On why the use of the Super Tucano fighter jets and the declaration of bandits as terrorists has not been gazetted, Malami said, “The gazetting of a court order or judgement is a process but what matters fundamentally within the context of international convention is the judicial declaration and that has been obtained; the court has declared bandits, kidnappers, cattle rustlers as terrorists.

“So, with or without the gazette, what gives effect to such declaration is a judicial pronouncement but the gazette is a mere formality and it has been on and I believe within a matter of days, it will be concluded.”

On whether the military has the clearance to use the jets, he said, “I can tell you that with the international convention demands associated with the usage of Super Tucano has been obtained which is a judicial pronouncement and declaration of bandits, cattle rustlers and indeed kidnappers as terrorists and that has been procured and the way has now been cleared for the application, deployment and usage of Super Tucano. Whether they have been put to use or not, I cannot say.”