Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice for Nigeria, Abubakar Malami has expressed disgust that a supposedly senior member of the bar, Femi Falana has decided to play ignorant of the country’s law but embarked on concoction.
“It is unfortunate that a Senior member of the Bar could resort to concoctions and fabrications of non-existing provisions just to score cheap media publicity.”
Malami, in a statement today, December 31 by his media aide, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, said that Falana attempted to confuse the facts and misinform the general public by relying on Sections 175 of the Constitution on Prerogative of Mercy.
He said that it is important to highlight that the Statement issued by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, which Falana was responding to, did not state that the duo of Dasuki and Sowore were released further to the Constitutional provisions on Prerogative of Mercy.
“A lawyer of Mr. Falana’s status should thus desist from stretching arguments beyond reasonable limits in order to score cheap political points.
“It is a common knowledge that Prerogative of Mercy and compassion are two different concepts.
“In the premise of the foregoing, the General Public should be rest assured that the Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR is committed to preserving the unity of the nation in accordance with the Rule of Law and respect for the Constitution.”
Read parts of the statement below:
Our attention has been drawn to a letter circulating on the media, purportedly written by Mr. Femi Falana, SAN and titled “Re: Why FG Released Dasuki, Sowore – Malami”, in response to the statement issued on December 24th 2019 by the Office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (HAGF) in relation to the subject.
The initial reaction of the Office of the Honorable Attorney-General of the Federation was to ignore the letter, as it is replete with misinformation and evinces lack of proper understanding of the law and issues implicated. The Office of Attorney General of the Federation has, however, decided to respond thereto in order to clarify the issues involved in the overall interest of the Public.
First, it is beyond doubt that the Federal Government of Nigeria or Any Prosecuting Authority has been vested with Constitutional right of appeal in Criminal Prosecutions.
These rights extend to Rulings on Bail and right to seek to vary terms of Bail, among others. Thus, in any circumstance where this right is waived by the Prosecution, it can only be for valid reasons, including compassion, after all connected issues have been duly considered.
It is further appalling to note that in a bid to garner media-hype in condemnation of a valid governmental action taken in good faith and in the interest of the general public, Mr. Falana, SAN resorted to quoting non-existing Sections of the Constitution by stating that: “Mr. Malami SAN should have apologized to Col. Dasuki (Rtd.) and Mr. Sowore in accordance with Section 32(6) of the 1999 Constitution…”.
