A popular human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has commended Kunle Edun, the current National Publicity Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for “HIS CONSISTENT STRIDES IN PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION”
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In a statement made available to TheNigeriaLawyer (TNL), Falana said “KUNLE EDUN IS PART OF THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE FOR A BETTER NIGERIA.”
Falana said Edun will win cases in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court as locus standi rule has been relaxed to accommodate public interest litigation.
He said: “Kunle,
“I congratulate you for your enormous contributions to the development of public interest litigation in Nigeria. I am confident that you will win the cases on appeal at the Supreme Court as the rule of locus standi has been largely relaxed to accommodate public interest litigation. Please see my book on “Nigerian Law on Socioeconomic Rights”.”
The learned silk further recalled how he, Gani Fawehinmi and others were harassed in the past by military dictators and how their cases were struck out by judges for want of locus standi
He said they remained undaunted by the challenges and limited success has been recorded as a result
“When the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN of blessed memory and a couple of us embarked on public interest litigation in the 1980s we were harassed by military dictators while judges struck out our cases and described us as “meddlesome interlopers” or “busy bodies”. The harassment has not ceased under the current rickety civilian rule. Last December, I obtained an interim order to stop the Nigerian Army from subjecting Nigerians to “positive identification” on the roads. Some lumpen elements were hired by the authorities of the Nigerian Army to demonstrate against me in Abuja. They did but I ignored them and continued with the case. Last week, the federal high court ruled in my favour and declared the exercise Illegal and unconstitutional.
“On many occasions in the past we were disappointed but undaunted. Hence, we kept up the struggle. We have since recorded limited success. Thus, apart from ensuring the abolition of the anachronistic doctrine of locus standi in the area of human rights the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules have legitimized public interest litigation. The Freedom of Information Act, Fiscal Responsibility Act, Electoral Act etc have specifically conferred locus standi on concerned citizens and public interest litigants/litigants to promote public accountability and credible elections.” Falana said
He concluded that Kunle Edun is part of the limited success. “You are part of our limited success. Please keep up the struggle. As we say in revolutionary parlance:
“A luta continua,
Victoria e certa!”
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