The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Prosecution, Okoi Obono-Obla, has said only Kaduna State government has the power to prosecute leader of the Shi’ite group, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky.
He spoke at training for institutions in the justice sector, organised by justice advocacy group, Access to Justice (A2Justice).
Obono-Obla said it was not the responsibility of the Federal Government to prosecute El-Zakzaky since the laws infringed upon are Kaduna State laws.
His words: “It is not a federal crime; this matter is a local crime. The law infringed upon by El-Zakzaky is not a federal offence. If he blocked the roads, if he confronted the soldiers, if they assaulted the soldiers, these are local offences that the Kaduna State government can try.
“The offense was committed in Kaduna, against the laws of the Kaduna State government, so ask Governor Nasir El-Rufai why he has not charged El-Zakzaky to court.
“You have a group that does not recognise the Constitution, a group that infringes on the rights of Nigerians if they go out on their procession; they carry dangerous weapons and try to intimidate everybody; they block the roads and don’t obey laws. Do we allow such group to trample on the rights of everybody?”
Obla said the committee on Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 (ACJA) was working to reduce the number of people under pretrial detention across the country.
According to him, the goal of the committee is to ensure that all criminal matters are handled by professional lawyers in the Federal Ministry of Justice, even as he called for the employment of professional prosecutors by the government.
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