Last week, in an interview with Sunday Tribune, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Mr Dakuku Peterside, levelled some allegations against the Rivers State government. Mr Emmanuel Aguma, SAN, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Rivers State, speaking with Deputy Editor, DAPO FALADE, explains the issues the government has with former Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who is now the Minister of Transportation. Excerpts:
FORMER Rivers State governor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, faulted the confirmation of the appointment of Justice Adama Iyayi-Lamikanra as the substantive Chief Judge of the state by nine members of the state House of Assembly. How would react to this?
Well, my position is simple. Anything that they do is legal, but anything anybody else does is illegal, particularly if your perspective or worldview is totally different from their own. I start by saying that there is absolutely nothing illegal in the House of Assembly’s confirmation of Honourable Justice Adama Iye Iyayi-Lamikanra as the substantive Chief Judge of Rivers State. It is not in dispute that all the procedures, up to the National Judicial Council (NJC) recommendations of Her Lordship as the Chief Judge of Rivers State, to the governor, were duly followed. Their only complaint is the confirmation by the state legislature.
You see, in life, when you cheat people, you will end up cheating yourself. Most times, it is biblical that when you dig a hole for somebody, you will fall inside. Their grounds is that there are just nine members of the Rivers State House of Assembly. The constitution says the quorum shall be one-third of all members of the House of Assembly. Who are all the members of the House of Assembly now? They are the elected nine members there. They are fortunate that it was not one man because the quorum would have been one-third of the one legislator himself. One-third of nine members is three. If the constitution had intended that the quorum is one-third of the constituent seats of the House of Assembly, the constitution would have been very clear but it only talked about membership
Secondly, the constitution does anticipate that, at times, there might not even be a quorum. Assuming, without conceding, that the quorum is 11, what the constitution says is that a member of the House would raise it and where no member of the House raises it, nothing would happen. It is very clear in the constitution
Finally, the same constitution, because it anticipates mischief makers, like you have here, who would do anything to frustrate institutions of governance, like they closed the courts not too long ago, the constitution says that no vacancy in any seat would invalidate any decision of the House. So what is the big deal? People should try and restrict themselves to their known professions. If you read English, be perfect in English; if you read engineering, be perfect in engineering; if you read medicine, be perfect in medicine. You leave law for we the lawyers to talk law. You can be a pocket lawyer from now till tomorrow, you cannot understand the language of the constitution because you are not trained to understand it. That is just the basic truth.
So, I tell you, all those people who are shouting, are shouting from the position of ignorance. Fortunately, you all know me; I am not television or radio lawyer. Anybody who feels that an infraction has taken place, the High Court is there; let us go there and test our legal language, our legal skills and our knowledge and the court will make a definitive decision. So, if any of them feels that there is anything wrong in the appointment of Honourable Justice Iyayi-Lamikanra as the substantive Chief Judge of Rivers State, they should go to court. After all, when they closed the courts here, I was into private legal practice. I was instructed and I went to court against them. Fortunately, I have a 100 per cent victory record against them; all my arguments won. So, I am not afraid of meeting them again in court in this issue.
He is also skeptical about securing orders from the state High Court as he said it is an appendage of the Governor Nyesom Wike-led government…
A man can never rise above his environment; a man can never rise above his thought process; a man can never rise above his intellectual limits. My response to that is found in his thought process. In the course of the interview he had on radio, he referred to Samuel Nwanosike, the caretaker chairman of Ikwerre Local Government Area and his words, as close as possible, are as follows: ‘when Nwanosike was at [the Rivers State] University of Science and Technology, he killed somebody. When he killed that person, SSS arrested him. His family pleaded with him [Amaechi] and so he [Amaechi] called the SSS Director and said 48 hours is too long to detain the boy. If you have evidence, charge him to court. If you don’t have evidence, release him and the boy was released’. From this narrative, a few things emerged: One, he interfered in the administration of justice. That is why he believes that the High Court is an appendage of this government; that is why he believes that everybody interferes in the administration of justice the way he interferes in the administration of justice.
Two, the whole story showed intellectual vacuousity. By his own narratives, it is clear that he intervened wrongfully by giving the SSS two options: if you have evidence, charge him to court; if you don’t have evidence, free him. It follows, logically, that the SSS did not charge the young man to court, if such an event ever occurred, because they had no evidence which meant he never killed anybody and which meant the story was meaningless and illogical from the beginning. Now, that is the kind of character we are dealing with; that is the kind of person we are dealing with-a man whose very thought lacks logical consistency; internal logical is lacking in it. How can somebody kill and there is no evidence to charge him to charge to court? Yet, you come to the conclusion that the person has killed.
Unless he is saying that he interfered with the prospects of investigation; he was party to the destruction of evidence and he prevented the due process of law from taking its due course, in which case, he committed a criminal offence and in trying to expose Nwanosike’s alleged killing, he also exposed the fact that he is an accessory after the fact.
Relating it now to your question, I can assure you that this administration is not an administration that has interest in the course of justice. Courts are free to make orders as they deem fit, whether for or against the government. I don’t even know what orders have been made that he is claiming were procured.
However, I am aware, as the Chief Law Officer of the state, that we have had course to go to court and obtain orders against the DSS usurping the functions of the police or the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to commute witch-hunts against officers of government. I am also aware, as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), that members of my party have gone and actually obtained judgment against the DSS, restraining them from harassing, intimidating and stalking them. They exercised their legal rights to go to court. Of course, I am not surprised that Mr Amaechi would be annoyed and irritated by that, after all, he closed the courts. He treats the judiciary with contempt and the judiciary only makes meaning for him when he intends to use it for his own benefits. His strength is in illegality; his strength is in bullying; his strength is in using the army and the police against innocent citizens.
Governor Amaechi has repeatedly said no page in the Justice George Omereji Report indicted him and the Rivers State government has been urged to go to court to prosecute those indicted in the White Paper. What is causing the delay?
Let me tell me you the truth; three things are delaying it and I will take them in the order of priority. But before I say what is delaying the prosecution, let me clear one fact. I am the state Attorney General and because of that, I am privy to a lot of information. Now, Mr Amaechi has never seen the Omereji Report. I say so with all sense of seriousness. The reason I say so is simple: his counsel, Rikky Tarfa, SAN and Co, applied to this office for a copy of the Report. I told him that I saw in television his client brandishing a copy of the Report before the Senate; that he should go and get a photocopy of that one one, let me compare it with what we have and I will certify it for him.
He raised the issue before the Court of Appeal and informed the Court of Appeal that he had asked for a copy of the Report. I told the justices of the Court of Appeal that he does not need to apply for any report from me; that he showed the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria the Report; that I simply asked them to bring what they have, let me certify it for them because they already have it. So, why are they applying to me for it again? Up till now, they have not done that. Instead, they have written over four letter to this office, asking for the Report and each time, we have told them to go and collect from Mr Amaechi the copy of the report he brandished before the National Assembly; let us certify for them. So what that tells me is that they don’t have a copy of the Omereji Report. If they have it, they would have brought it for certification; if they have a copy of the Report, they will not be applying for it from me again.
They also applied for a copy of the White Paper on the Report. I have since give them the certified copies of the White Paper. I can even give all of you people here copies of the White Paper now. If he has a copy of the Report and he had read the Report and he says he is not indicted in the Report, he is not being truthful. If he has not read the Report and he says he is not indicted, well I will only blame him for speaking too quick. As I sit here as the Attorney General of the state, I do know that the Report I read indicted him and I also do know that the White Paper, which I have read, indicted him. So the issue of him not been indicted is just the normal make-believe fantasy and propaganda.
He was surely indicted. And if he was not indicted, why has he applied to the Court of Appeal to set aside the Report? Do you set aside a report that you are not indicted in? That is a double-speak! The suit is there at the Court of Appeal to set aside the Report. You journalists go there, I will not tell you the appeal number and you see his application there. So what is he applying before the appellate court to set aside? A play song or the indictment?
Now, why we have not implemented the Report is in stages. One, I just told that he applied to set it aside; we respect the Rule of Law. I am the same person who caused the local government election to be set aside because it did not obey the Rule of Law. So, how would I do something against the pendency of a suit knowing the effect? I cannot do that; I cannot advise that.
Number two, which is the second stage, in spite of the indictment, there must also be an independent process of investigation. Under the current climate and nomenclature. It is obvious that it is a waste of time. Amaechi is the Inspector General of Police (he directs police where to go, saying ‘I have deployed police’, ‘police has failed’ and so on). Since he is the Inspector General of Police, he is the Chief of Army Staff, he is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces-he is all roll into one, who are you going to report him to, to investigate and prosecute him? The same people he gives command to?
However, all hope is not lost. They crimes committed are multi-jurisdictional. Some of the crimes are across international boundaries. Since the process of the crimes committed are across international boundaries, any of those countries in which any of the incidence of the offence occurred can assume jurisdiction to try the offence. And I can assure you that, that is where we are headed. You have heard the last of this incident and Rivers State people will surely get justice at the end of the day.
Are you a politician?
Me, I am. There is nobody that is not a politician; everybody here, including you, are all practising politicians. Every human being living is a politician because politics is about conflicts and resolution of conflicts. My first degree was in Politics and International Studies before I read Law. In 1999, I worked under [the late] Marshall Harry; PDP, as a party, wanted to make the Attorney General but the elected governor then did not want me. I went back to my law firm and built it to the stage it is now. I didn’t go to join the defunct All People’s Party (APP); I didn’t start crying about town or making noise; I didn’t form any opposition; I didn’t jump from party to party. I remained in PDP the way I remain in PDP today because I believe in PDP and what it stands for. As far as I am concerned, PDP is the only party that has retained its identity since 1999.
We have two brothers in two opposing parties in the state, that is you and Igo Aguma. How are you managing the differences…
What is it? Don’t you have two brothers who support two different football teams? When they are playing cup finals, how do they manage it? You manage the two opposing parties the same way you manage it when two brothers are supporting two different football teams in a cup finals-one is supporting Sharks and the other one is supporting Dolphins and they are playing the Challenge Cup finals. The same way you manage that crisis is the same way you manage the political crisis.
Are you now saying that you and your younger brother have a way of managing within the family your utterances in the public?
What I am saying is that you support your team, unless you are not a fan of that team. What has family meeting got to do with politics? Of course, everybody knows that I vote PDP, even if my mother goes to the All Progressives Congress (APC), I will not vote for her; she knows. If my father resurrects today and goes to APC, I will not vote for him. I am a PDP person and I will vote PDP. That is why, today, I am the chairman of the Rivers PDP Disciplinary Committee; I discipline people who do anti-party. That is why I cannot do anti-party.
It is unfortunate that my brother, Igo [the APC candidate for the Port Harcourt Federal Constituency 1], is in APC. But he is old enough to make decisions for himself, while I am also enough to make decisions for myself. It is nothing emotive; people who see politics as being emotive are the people who deceives themselves. They are the people that whip up the sentiments that they are leading the army to come and all that. Politics ought to be means of achieving discernible and tangible goals.
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