…we’re after bandits, kidnappers, others – Military
Mr Femi Falana (SAN), has filed a suit against the Nigerian Army, it’s Chief of Army Staff and the Attorney-General of the Federation, praying for an order to stop the planned kick-off of Nigeria Army’s Operation Positive Identification.
The suit marked FHC/L/CS/1939/2019 was filed before the Federal High Court in Lagos on October 25.
The Senior Advocate had in a letter published on the 27th of October, stated that the decision of the authorities of the Nigerian Army to subject law abiding citizens to personal identification on the road constitutes a gross infringement of their constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights to freedom of movement and dignity.
He further stated that it is a sad reminder of the illegal practice of the white minority rulers which compelled Africans to carry pass books outside their homelands or designated areas under the apartheid regime in South Africa.
In his suit regarding the matter, Falana gave eight grounds for seeking reliefs.
The grounds as given by Falana include:
- By virtue of Section 215 (3) of the Constitution, 1999 as amended, the Nigeria police force has been conferred with the exclusive power to maintain law and order and secure public safety and public order in the country.
- Section 217 (1) of the Constitution empowers the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to deploy the armed forces for the suppression of insurrection and acting in aid of civil authorities to restore law and order, but the power cannot be exercised until there is an insurrection or civil disturbance which cannot be contained by the Nigeria police.
- There is no insurrection in every part of the country which the Nigeria police cannot contain to warrant the deployment of armed troops all over the country from 1st November, 2019 to December 23rd, 2019.
- Neither the Constitution nor the Armed Forces Act Cap A20 LFN, 2004 has empowered the Nigeria Army to arrest any citizen who is not subject to service law.
- The 1st Respondent under the leadership of the 2nd Respondent is not empowered to take over police duties and the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces lacks the power to deploy members of the armed forces in the maintenance of internal security in any part of the country by virtue of Section 217 (a) (b) and (c) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
- The planned nationwide operation by the 1st Respondent scheduled for November 1, 2019 to December 23rd 2019 tagged Operation Positive Identification (OPI) by which the Applicant and other Nigerian citizens would be required to move about with legitimate means of Identification such as National Identification Card, voters Registration Card, Drivers’ License and International passports is unconstitutional, illegal, null and void as it violates the rights of the Applicant and other Nigerian citizens to freedom of movement as encapsulated in Section 41 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as Amended and Article 12 respectively of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, (Cap A10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
- The planned nationwide operation by the 1st Respondent scheduled for November 1, 2019 to December 23rd 2019 tagged Operation Positive Identification (OPI) by which the Applicant and other Nigerian citizens would be required to move about with legitimate means of Identification such as National Identification Card, voters Registration Card, Drivers’ License and International passports is unconstitutional, illegal, null and void as it violates the rights of the Applicant and other Nigerian citizens to liberty respectively as encapsulated in Section 35 respectively of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as Amended and Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, (Cap A10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
- Unless the Respondents are restrained by an order of interim injunction pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit, irreparable damage may occur.
Meanwhile, the Defence Headquarters has said Operation Positive Identification, which begins today, is meant to flush out “foreign combatants infiltrating our borders and conducting attacks.”
The acting Director, Defence Information, Col Onyema Nwachukwu, in an interview with one of our correspondents in Abuja on Thursday, said the exercise would focus mainly on bandits and criminal elements.
The Chief of Army Staff, Let-Gen Tukur Buratai, who appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on the Army, defended the operation, saying any means of identification would be accepted during the exercise.
Early in September, the Nigerian Army had said that it would embark on Operation Positive Identification. On September 25, the Nigerian Army, in a statement by the acting Director of Army Public Relations, Col Sagir Musa, said the operation would be extended nationwide to “check out for bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, ethnic militia, cattle rustlers as well as other sundry criminals across the various regions of Nigeria.”
The acting Director, Defence Information, Col Onyema Nwachukwu, in the interview with one of our correspondents, noted that the operation was to fish out foreign attackers, bandits and fighters.
Defending the exercise, the acting director of defence information said the operation was first conducted in the North-East.
According to him, Operation Room Assessment, which the military conducted in the North-East after Operation Positive Identification, led to the arrest of top Boko Haram commanders. He said this made the military to see the need to extend the OPI to other regions.
He said, “Operation Positive Identification was first of all conducted in the North-East of Nigeria. What actually led to that operation was because there were sleeper cells of the Boko Haram and the Islamic State West African Province members that infiltrated the populace.
“For instance, during one of the combat operations with the insurgents, the military found a brand new mobile phone on a dead terrorist and also the receipt of the phone which had just been obtained from a market. This means that he had bought that phone and had been in town just days before he returned to the forests to meet the terrorist commanders. So, such instances give us the intelligence that the Boko Haram members infiltrate the towns in the North-East.
“So it was a successful operation in the North-East as several Boko Haram commanders and members were arrested and many weapons recovered. That operation was not all about the army; other services of the military and other security agencies partook in it.
“We adjudged the operation as successful in the North-East and it was decided that such operation should be extended to other theatres of operation such as the North-West and North-Central, where we have had issues of foreign combatants infiltrating our borders and encroaching on our country and conducting attacks on Nigerians who live on the fringes of these borders.
“We have had encounters with these infiltrations through forests in Zamfara, Sokoto and others being used as enclaves in the North-West. So we decided to extend the operation to other regions so as to address these cross-border criminals.
“The evaluation we did was that Operation Positive Identification would be extended to the North-West and North-Central regions because of its successes in the North-East. The operation involves all the security agencies, both those who are involved in the kinetic and non-kinetic operations.”
