Constitutional lawyer, Mike Ozekhome SAN has accused the Federal Government of pre-empting the state Judicial Panels of Inquiry.
He said it was duplicitous of the Federal Government to encourage the setting up of the panels and then go around arresting, prosecuting and freezing the bank accounts of #EndSARS protesters.
Ozekhome said it amounted to pronouncing the protesters guilty before the panels had completed their work.
Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had frozen the accounts of 20 #EndSARS promoters.
The passport of another #EndSARS promoter, Modupe Odele, was seized by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), which later returned it.
Similarly, presidential aide, Garba Shehu warned that the #EndSARS promoters must be ready to should be “prepared to account for what they did”, raising fears of prosecution.
Reacting, Ozekhome said, “If the government at the centre is taking this kind of decision, what happens to the various panels and commissions set up by state governments?
“What will be the consequence of the findings of those commissions of inquiries? Will the government not be unduly interfering with the activities of those panels by obviously working from the answer to the question?
“Will those panels not be readily duty-bound to agree with the position of the Federal Government in a country where all governors defer to the President like in a monarchy?
“These are some of the questions that state governments have to ask before taking further steps.
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“If it has nothing to hide, the Federal Government should make haste slowly and allow the various states to do their work because we are operating a federal system of government.
“At the end of the various panel sittings, when the governors meet at their state council meetings, they can then present the finding and discuss the issue at the national level.
“But if the government begins to take proactive steps such as blocking the account of the protest sponsors, arresting the protesters and arraigning them, then the government has already pronounced them guilty even before the panels make their findings.”
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