Ogunye criticises partisan comment on criminal charges after Ezekwesili’s orders to Tinubu
By Adeola Atanda
A lawyer-activist, Jiti Ogunye, has deprecated what he called ‘reckless commentary in pending criminal charge’. Ogunye says in a Facebook post that a meddler in such a matter risks a contempt charge, if the person “presumptuously” insinuates that “the charge and impending prosecution are an abuse of power”, thereby “questioning the basis of the charge, denigrating the court, and stating that the criminal defendant cannot get justice in the court.”
Ogunye’s innuendo comes on the heels of a call by former minister Obiageli Ezekwesili on President Bola Tinubu to direct the cessation of a criminal charge filed against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Ezekwesili, in a tweet, called the charges an “act of gross irresponsibility, illegality, and irrationality”, as well as a ploy by both Tinubu’s administration and President of Senate, Godswill Akpabio to silence and repress the senator for political gain.
“Specifically instruct the Attorney General to on the 3rd of June, withdraw that wrongheaded, frivolous and dangerous criminal charges against a woman crying out for fair hearing on her sexual harassment case. Your government must stop making a mockery of our democracy in the eyes of the world,” Ezekwesili instructed President Tinubu.
She also said, “Instruct the Police IG whom you supervise as C-in-C to immediately investigate all the 12 petitions filed by Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan over the last 3 months on fears for her life. After due investigations, the Police must move immediately to impartially take the next appropriate actions.
Taking a differing position, Ogunye implied that such statement – which strikes a semblance with Ezekwesili’s – undermines “the fair administration of criminal justice” and “the integrity of the court to independently and impartially adjudicate the matter and dispense justice, in accordance with the law.”
Ogunye seemed to foresee a controversy over his position from those he derisively called ‘defenders of the right to freedom of expression’ but “are uninformed about the criminal consequences of seemingly harmless civic pontifications and grandstanding by “civil society saviours.”
According to the lawyer, there is a convergence point for the actions of both state actors and the citizenry. He said, “The problem is that the Nigerian State and State actors engage in so many illegalities that citizens who recklessly commit illegalities and engage in criminal conducts feel justified, and, therefore, claim immunity to act with impunity.
“A reckless State and reckless citizens. What a society!, Ogunye exclaimed.
