Civil Rights Advocacy Group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has tasked the Minister of Culture and tourism to return to hundred level law studies to understand that a President-elect does not possess any constitutional powers, authority or functions to perform on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Rights group is reacting against the backdrops of a reactionary statement by Lai Mohammed purportedly warning the labour party’s presidential flag bearer and former governor of Anambra State Mr. Peter Gregory Obi that he would be committing treason should he continue to dispute the so-called victory of President- elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu
HURIWA tells Lai Mohammed thus: “We are highly embarrassed that a man who claims to have gone through the law school not to know that a president- elect is yet to be inaugurated and so has neither constitutional authority over the territory of the Federation nor any powers to exercise as head of state of Nigeria.”
“Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the INEC declared president-elect and this pronouncement by the ethically deficit and corrupt INEC is being challenged through a litigation permitted by section 6 of the constitution. The chapter 4 of the constitution guarantees every citizen of Nigeria including Peter Obi the fundamental freedoms including freedom to associate with everyone and to exercise his freedom of speech. The likes of Lai Mohammed must stop his overzealousness and stop disgracing us.”
HURIWA is therefore warning Mr. Lai Obi to stol the channel noise and to stop overheating the polity because there is no law that says persons who feel cheated in an election should sit indoors. This Lai Mohammed needs to go back to Year one at the University of Ilorin for crash course on constitutional freedoms and the Powers of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and so he is made aware that a President-elect is simply someone on rehearsal and hasn’t yet been conferred with any legal powers exercisable by a sitting President. And even a citizen President can be thoroughly criticised by the people of Nigeria who owns the sovereignty of Nigeria. Anyone contemplating arresting Peter Obi would have to arrest 60 million Igbo people Worldwide and the Obidient family cutting across all religions and ethnicities.”
HURIWA cited the following fundamental rights provisions to justify the right of all citizens to freedom of expression including Peter obi and Atiku Abubakar who are contesting the emergence of the APC’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu, thus: 34(1) Every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person, and accordingly – (a)no person shall be subject to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment; (b) no person shall he held in slavery or servitude; and (c)no person shall be required to perform forced of compulsory labour. 35 (1) Every person shall be entitled to his personal liberty and no person shall be deprived of such liberty save in the following cases and in accordance with a procedure permitted by law. 39 (1) Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference. 41(1) Every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof, and no citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereby or exit therefrom. 42(1) A citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such a person:- (a) be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action of the government, to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions are not made subject; or (b) be accorded either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any such executive or administrative action, any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions.
(2) No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth.
Specifically the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed in Washington DC, during his official engagements with some international media organizations whereby he warned Peter Obi to stol inciting people.
During the respective interactions with the media organizations, the minister said it was wrong for Obi in one breadth to seek redress in court over the outcome of the polls and in another breadth incite people to violence.
“Obi and his Vice, Datti Ahmed cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the President-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria.
“This is treason. You cannot be inviting insurrection, and this is what they are doing. Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not the democrat that he claimed to be. A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins election,” he said.
The minister said in challenging the election results, there was no pathway to victory for either Obi and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to the minister, both Obi and Atiku failed to meet the constitutional requirements to be declared as presiden
