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The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Ado-Ekiti branch, Ekiti State, Monday said the proposed amnesty for the Boko Haram sect was not the immediate solution to the current security challenges facing the country.
Speaking at a press conference in Ado-Ekiti as part of the activities heralding the 2013 Law Week of the association, the branch Chairman, Mr. Joseph Adewumi, said granting amnesty to members of a sect who have refused to show themselves in the public was a share waste of time, money and resource.
He, however, opined that the only genuine solution to the myriad of problems facing the nation was the convocation of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) where the existence of Nigeria as a nation could be addressed by all the components that make up the country.
He disclosed that the theme for the one-week event which started yesterday is ‘Nigeria’s Security Challenges: The Need for A New Legal Order’, which he said was in tandem with the current situation in the country.
He described the SNC as a necessary and immediate solution to some of the security challenges both at the state and the national level, noting that with eminent Nigerians in attendance, it would afford every group affected in political violence to air their views, and issues about Nigeria’s entity would be trashed out.
According to the NBA boss, amnesty for members of the Boko Haram sect was an attempt by the northern leaders to have their own shares of the ‘national cake.’
He noted that amnesty was for somebody who was ready to repent and show remorse, before such a gesture could be extended to him or her adding that the group itself had claimed that it had not done anything wrong to warrant such gesture.
Adewumi regretted that “it is unfortunate that federal government succumbed to the pressure of the northern leaders by considering the extension of amnesty for the terror group.”
In his opposition to amnesty for the sect, Adewumi insisted that amnesty should not be granted to the group because it would amount to postponing the evil day.
Also, while condemning the recent political violence that rocked the state, he said Nigerian leaders had failed their followers, expressing worried over political thuggery in which some prominent politicians of the state were attacked.
“The NBA condemns in the strongest terms any form of political thuggery in the state.
“We therefore strongly appeal to the leadership of the political parties in the state to caution their over-zealous members who are in the habit of attacking the so called political opponent or destroying their posters even when members of the political parties did not tell them to do so.” He said.
He charged members of all the political parties to be tolerant and allow internal democracy among them, so that the forthcoming governorship election in the state would occur without causality.
Earlier in his remarks, the chairman of the occasion and the chief judge of the state, Justice Ayo Daramola, who was represented by Justice I.O Ogunyemi lauded the efforts of the association and its leaders for their pioneering role in championing the course of justice.
He said: “NBA is a guiding light in the society. If NBA keeps silent, the society is doomed.”
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