Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has described the attempt by the Federal Government to secretly try the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, by using mask-wearing prosecution witnesses as mockery of democracy.
He said Nigerians must force President Muhammadu Buhari to purge himself of the “blood and water of dictatorship flowing in his veins.”
In a release issued on Saturday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said, “It is shameful that the Federal Government could approach the court for witnesses in a criminal matter it is prosecuting to wear masks.”
He said even the prosecuting counsel, who filed the application should be ashamed of themselves for making themselves available to be used as tools to subvert democracy.
“They want Kanu tried secretly. They also want the former National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki (retd) tried secretly. What are they afraid of?
“How can the Federal Government ask the court to allow ‘ojuju calabar’ (masquerade) as prosecution witnesses when we are not under military rule?
“How would such witnesses be cross-examined by defence lawyers and can their real identity be ascertained?
“Should anyone make allegations that he cannot be bold enough to defend in the law court? Why are the witnesses afraid to testify in an open court if truly they are witnesses of truth?
“Clearly, this is mockery of democracy and the rule of law and Nigerians should know that it is their duty to purge President Buhari of dictatorship,” the governor said.
While hailing the judiciary for once again rising in the defence of democracy by saying no to the anti-democratic plot of using masquerade as witnesses, Fayose stressed that only the judiciary could save Nigeria from the “full-blown dictatorship that this Buhari-led APC government has become.” Punch
