Support for the embattled Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, by the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), a group of 31 Northern Nigerian Lawyers have volunteered to render legal services to one of Nigeria’s highly decorated cop.
Speaking for the Lawyers during an interaction with journalists in Abuja, on Wednesday, Barrister Sanusi Salisu, said the volunteer lawyers were drawn across all the 19 Northern states and across all religions and tribes.
The lawyers, he said, volunteered to render free expert legal services for the preservation of Mr. Kyari’s fundamental rights that may be potentially jeopardized by his alleged indictment by a court in the United States of America.
Speaking on what they intend to do, he said, “we would critically review the procedures adopted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to get the US Court to indict Kyari on allegations of involvement in charges filed against a suspected fraudster, Ramon Abbas also known as Hushpuppi.”
“We would raise questions involving the possibility of breaches to Kyari’s fundamental rights entrenched in Articles six and seven of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Right which essentially state that every individual shall have the right to liberty and to the security of his person and every individual shall have the right to have his cause heard.”
“This comprises; the right to an appeal to competent national organs against acts of violating his fundamental rights as recognized and guaranteed by conventions, laws, regulations and customs in force.”
“The right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty by a competent court or tribunal; the right to defence, including the right to be defended by counsel of his choice; the right to be tried within a reasonable time by an impartial court or tribunal”.
He further said that hey would also weigh the FBI procedures against Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which entitled the embattled Kyari to a fair hearing within a reasonable time by a court, or other tribunal.
“Subsections nine and 10 of this section also stipulates that everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law and everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him,” Barrister Salisu concluded.
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