Poor Nigerians stay in prisons; wealthy prisoners do theirs in ‘white house’- Falana
Rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, tells his side of the story in a leaked voice conversation by a social media influencer, Martins Otse (VeryDarkMan), allegedly linking him via his son, Falz, with the travails of the convicted cross dresser, Okuneye Idris (Bobrisky), while at the Kirikiri Medium Correctional Centre through a special arrangement. In this interview on Channels TV’ Politics Today’ monitored by David Lawani, the SAN explained that it is not new for prisoners to stay in the VIP section because those who have the means always stay in befitting luxury apartments, among other issues
What exactly is your side in this matter involving Bobrisky and VDM?
Well, I think it is a question of infantile radicalism. Some of our young people are not just prepared to look at the provisions of the law concerning the law of defamation. So, they simply go out there to embarrass people. I can say this without any fear of contradiction. I have assisted 280 people, as well as convicted people at home and abroad, in getting pardoned. On one occasion, 200 Nigerians were convicted in Libya for drug-related offences. Still, because the trials were conducted in Arabic, and all spoke in Arabic, I petitioned the African Commission on People’s Rights. That commission at our instance, I did it on behalf of SERAP. At our instance, the commission issued a provisional order restraining the government of Libya from executing Nigerians. I think Abike Dabiri-Erewa was then the chairman of the Diaspora Committee of the House of Representatives. That committee had appealed to the Federal Government in vain, but based on our intervention, the court issued an order, and two months later, President Ghaddafi became the chair of the African Union. And we took advantage of that to write to him. We appealed to him to pardon these Nigerians by complying with the judgment of the African Commission, stating that if you do not, you would be showing a bad example as the leader of the continent and the chair of the African Union. The late President Ghaddafi granted our request by granting pardon to the 200 convicted Nigerians on death row. They were deported and brought back to Nigeria. On another occasion, in 2015, we appealed to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, over 70 soldiers and a General who were demoted to the rank of colonel. They have fought the terrorists without adequate equipment. Mr. President had to set up a Presidential Arms procurement panel, which confirmed those members who looted over $2bn earmarked for the procurement of arms. Please can you grant pardon to these guys who were illegally convicted and sentenced? Seventy soldiers were sentence to death. Brig-Gen Hamilton Ransom-Kuti was demoted to a Colonel and jailed for six months. We got the panel to quash his conviction for six months and now appealed to former President Buhari to pardon him. And happily, his rank has since been restored. He has retired now as a Brig-Gen while we are pursuing the demand for payment for the right of entitlement, outstanding salaries, and gratuities of the 70 soldiers. In 1991, 12 young people under 17 were illegally sentenced to death after they were convicted of armed robbery in Lagos by an armed robbery tribunal. We stormed there and told the court to stop their execution, and when a civilian government came on board in 1992, we appealed to the late Chief Michael Otedola, as the governor of Lagos State, to pardon these young people, and they were pardoned. We already have a list of about 280 people, and on no occasion, in all of these cases, has our law firm demanded or received a dime or kobo from anybody who has been granted a pardon.
Did Bobrisky speak with you? What are you doing to prove your innocence in all of these allegations?
Bobrisky never spoke to me. I have never met him. I do not know him from Adam. He was alleged to have spoken to my son, Folarin. Falz. Yes, my son said, this guy appealed to people for assistance. He called my son on May 4th this year and said please, can you give me N3m to be placed in a special part of the prison- we call it the VIP session. And, my son asked him, are you calling me under the authorization of the prison superintendent? He said no, and my son said, please don’t call me again. I am unable to assist you in bribing the prison authorities. And be very careful since you are already in jail for an offence. Please if you are going to call me next time, you either go through the superintendent or you write a letter endorsed by the prison authorities. And that was the last. Somebody now said he listened to a tape somewhere and went out to lampoon and rather defamed me by saying that the guy had spoken to me. Of course, I have examined the call logs, and my son said this was the guy who had originated the calls to me. My son has never negotiated this on anybody’s behalf. But on the contrary, my three children commonly refer people who need assistance to me. And, not those my wife was asking recently, why are you always defending people who are not able to pay our fees? Next time, we are going to be charging you. This is the position. Now, what am I going to do? I have resisted the temptation to file a criminal complaint because I lead a team of West African lawyers campaigning for decriminalizing freedom of expression. We have succeeded. This campaign is being coordinated by the Media Foundation for West Africa, of which I am a member. We have succeeded in getting Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Ghana to decriminalize freedom of expression. We are still appealing to other countries in the region to ensure we respect freedom of expression. But that is not a license for defaming people and blackmailing people. We are saying that if you are defamed, in the words of the late Justice Aladewura, in the case of Arthur Nwankwo vs the state. If anybody defames you, please go out there and sue for libel; where will you put your character in issue? But in this case, we will not file a criminal complaint. We will not be pushed to do that. I’m defending a couple of journalists who are standing trial either under the cybercrime act or the criminal libel. But, we are going to embark on civil proceedings to restore our integrity, my own name, and that of my son. So that nobody will rush to social media to defame any Nigerian. We want to make an example in this case. We have asked for a retraction and an apology rendered to us, and that is not too much. If we don’t have a retraction and apology acceptable to us, we are certainly going to initiate civil proceedings in the high court.
Aside from the defamation and libel involved in this matter, is the alleged corruption in our correctional services with the EFCC, with the withdrawal of the money laundering case, dependent on a possible inducement?
I am a former inmate of the correctional centres in the country. I also do prison work. I have exposed the rot in the prisons more than any Nigerian. On one occasion, I did a report which revealed that between 2005 and 2016, with a government to this effect, 197 people convicted of drug trafficking in the Federal High Court in Ikoyi were convicted and sentenced to prison terms without any option of fine, never made it to any prison in Nigeria. Never! I petitioned the authorities, think they declared them wanted, but only one was found. The rest went back to the trade. I am still pursuing this matter. Secondly, everybody who has been to the prison, either as an inmate, an awaiting trial person, or a convict, knows that there is a VIP section in every correctional centre in Nigeria. It is called the White House. It is for big people. It is for big men and women. If you are a man of means or a woman of means, and you are detained in our prisons or correctional centres, you will be accommodated in the VIP section in the White House. I am surprised that the House of Reps was pretending not to know that a panel is being set up to see the state of our correctional centres. The Correctional Services Act of 2019 has made adequate provisions for checking the excesses of prison officials. I have just written to the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who is doing a marvellous job in that ministry. I wrote Minister that there shall be prison visitors by virtue of section 21 of the Correctional Services Act. Visitors to visit our correctional centres regularly and write reports recommending what the government should do to address problems in our correctional centres. The Minister has called to assure me that the appointments will be scheduled as soon as possible. So that we have prison visitors going to the correctional centres regularly, independent people, and public officials, in that case, judges and members of the NBA, as provided by the law, if they carry out their statutory duties, our country will not be exposed from time to time, concerning the management of correctional centres. Nigeria has the lowest of convicts in the world with regards to our population because the correctional centres are now reserved for the wretched poor and underprivileged. A big man or woman does not stay. It is difficult to ask the big man to go to prison. Even when they are tried. Even when a former governor or Minister is charged with diverting billions of naira, the judge asks him to go to the correctional centre for two days, then await the argument or application for bail. So, that is what is going on. It is only the poor that are railroaded into jail in Nigeria.
You have written letters about the Port Harcourt Refinery. Different dates have been given for its take off. What do we need to know that needs to be made to the public?
After the NNPCL had postponed the commission of the rehabilitated Port Harcourt Refinery, I decided to get to the root of the matter. My organization, Alliance for Survival of COVID-19 and beyond, mandated me to write to the two Italian contract firms. In April 2021, the Federal Executive Council approved the award of the contract for the rehabilitation of the Port-Harcourt Refinery to Maire Tecnimont to fix the two refineries for the sum of $1.8bn, and the duration of the contract was 33 months. Again, it was announced sometime in August 2021 that the company has awarded the contracts to fix the Warri and Kaduna refineries for $1.4bn for six to 33 months- the contract periods are over. So, a case of breach of both contracts has been established. Both companies have sent me very revealing information concerning the Port-Harcourt Refinery. Maire Tecnimont, through its lawyers, wrote to me asking me to please give us more time, and by October 2nd, we shall have responded to your request. On October 2nd, that company, through its lawyers, reacted to my request, declining to furnish me with information on the completion date of the rehabilitation of the two refineries on the ground that it is a private company. So, it is not indebted by the provision of the Freedom of Information Act. With profound respect, we told the lawyers and their client that the Court of Appeal has decided that if you are a private company and public funds are entrusted to you, you are bound by the provision of the Act. We will take that up elsewhere, but of course, with respect to the embarrassing situation, where one of the companies is even threatening to sue me for causing reputational harm by alleging that this contract was awarded to them to fix the Warri and Kaduna refineries. My colleagues, the law firm of Ajumogobi & Okeke have also written to me that these contracts were not awarded to them. Why are you still demanding information on the contract completion dates? And I have replied that this announcement was made by the Federal Executive Council in August 2021, after three years. You have just denied it. You have never denied that these contracts were never awarded to you. And, up till now, the FEC has not revoked the contracts and awarded them to another company. So, our country has to get to the root of what can be said to be a case of monumental corruption. We are talking about $2.9bn. For a country that is said to be broke, we must now escalate this matter by inviting the relevant anti-corruption agencies to assist the government in tracing these funds.
Are there explanations to the Nigerian people over this matter? Why are the companies taking Nigerians for granted? What should be done about this?
Again, the government needs to be advised appropriately. In this country, we used to know that if the government awarded a contract to a company, the government would simply summon the contractors to justify a delay in the execution of the contract. So, it is not the NNPCL or the federal government’s responsibility to announce when the refineries will be fully rehabilitated. The government must summon the contractors to justify why a breach has occurred. If a satisfactory explanation is not provided, the government will look at what the agreement says concerning either going to court or usually an arbitration comes in. But in this case, I am alleging fraud. The government has a duty to the Nigerian people to indict any contracting firm that has messed up the country concerning the refineries’ repairs. If one of the companies is saying to the colossal embarrassment of the government, you never awarded this contracts to us, you are deceiving the Nigerian people by saying these contracts were awarded to us. We will ask the FEC, the company to whom you awarded these contracts in 2021, the company you approved the contracts for, now say we know nothing about these contracts, and it is a severe embarrassment for any more than the state. The one in Port Harcourt has become a huge embarrassment. Even last December, the President announced that those two refineries would resume production as in business, and that was the information given to the President. I expect by now, those who embarrassed the President to that extent should have been fired, and that has to be done now. Since last year, we have been told the refineries will be up and running this year. We were given numerous dates. When will the refinery be working?