THE Federal Government, on Thursday, told State Attorney-Generals to deploy the full weight of the law to identify and punish perpetrators of murder and other crimes, irrespective of religious and ethnic background.
The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), who gave the directive at High-level dialogue on law and insecurity in Nigeria held in Abuja noted that the killings and the rising spate of crimes across the country deserve the highest sanctions under the laws.
He stressed the need for State Attorney-Generals to work together, as the perpetrators of the heinous crimes have perfected the art of cross-boundary movements in order to throw law-enforcement agencies off their trails.
He said the Federal Government has succeeded in decimating and degrading the Boko Haram terrorist group, even as he accused corrupt politicians of desperate attempt to discredit the gains made by the present administration, for political gain.
The AGF noted that, insecurity in any form, in any part of Nigeria, is an affront to the values which the Federal Government has sworn to defend and added that “We are all living witnesses to how our security architecture and processes were compromised over the years of previous administrations in this country where funds meant for the security of this nation were mindlessly looted and frittered away to the detriment of our collective well-being.”
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The Minister said it is the law that provides the legal basis for the security architecture of the country through the Constitutional allocation of duties and obligations to the different tiers of Government.
Using the instrumentality of the law, the AGF said government is currently prosecuting politically exposed persons within and outside the security services, accused of crimes against the common national interests and shared humanity as citizens of the country.
“The greater danger to our collective survival remains the fact that we are not fully out of the grip of this corrupt, privileged class, despite the best intentions and efforts of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
“On the contrary, we are now confronted with a situation where they are using the humongous loot still in their possession, either directly or through proxies, to continuously launch attacks designed to subvert critical national and State institutions and processes including undermining the security agencies themselves; compromising the executive instruments of investigation; infiltrating the judiciary whose independence to determine cases judiciously and expeditiously they have attempted to undermine; and ultimately attempting to foist a system of corruption on the country”, he added.
Malami further noted that it is the duty of the law to ensure that all anti-social actions have consequences and that those consequences are imposed or enforced on all deviants.
According to the AGF, the High-Level Dialogue, which was convened to address the issue of Law and Security in the country, got the approval of the President out of a genuine and urgent desire to explore and utilize all possible strategies to ensure the peace and stability of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The AGF urged the state Attorneys-Generals to ensure due compliance with the constitutional prescription for the country to be governed on the basis of law, order and good governance.
The lead speaker, Prof. Akin Oyebode in his paper titled, “Law, Justice and security in Nigeria: A plea for good governance” said Nigeria is currently confronted with crisis of confidence on account of its ineffectiveness to arrest the drift towards instability and insecurity.
The Professor of Law, University of Lagos said, there is an urgent need to confront head-on forces that threaten to commit acts that can lead to security failure.
He said the country’s prospect for survival is on the high side so long as the decisive action is taken by the government to neutralise forces of discord and mayhem.
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