Abuja — A group of northern Nigerian lawyers have volunteered to render free legal services to the embattled suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari.
The group in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja, which was signed by its Coordinator, Sunusi Salisu, said the volunteered lawyers are drawn from across all the 19 northern states and across all religions and tribes to render free expert legal services to preserve Kyari’s fundamental rights “that may be potentially jeopardised by his alleged indictment by a court in the United States of America.”
The lawyers said they 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, known also as Hushpuppi.
The group said: “We would raise questions involving the possibility of the occasioning of breaches of Kyari’s fundamental rights entrenched in Articles 6 and 7 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.
“These comprise: The right to an appeal to competent national organs against acts of violating his fundamental rights as recognised and guaranteed by conventions, laws, regulations and customs in force.
“The right to be presumed innocent until proven 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.”
The lawyers said they would weigh the procedures against the intendment of Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), which specifically stated that: ‘In the determination of his civil rights and obligations, including any question or determination by, or against any government or authority, a person shall be entitled to fair hearing within a reasonable time by a court or other tribunal’.