Ozekhome, Dareng oppose Buhari over Executive Order on gun licence

Tribune Online
Ozekhome, Dareng oppose Buhari over Executive Order on gun licence

Constitutional lawyer, Chief Mike Ozhekome SAN, has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari over his Executive Order for the withdrawal of gun licences from Nigerians.

His stance tallies with that of the House of Representatives, which also opposed the order, citing the precarious security situation across the country.

Ozekhome claimed in a statement entitled: President Buhari ‘s “Executive Order withdrawing Gun Licences: the Legal and Social Consequences,” that the president was not altruistic in evoking such order.

According to the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), even though the prevalent security challenges confronting the country call for serious action, the action of the president’s order was a panicky measure following threats by militants groups for political freedom.

He said the order would further endanger the lives of Nigerians who were already exposed to “unrestrained murderous and blood-letting activities of marauders, herdsmen, terrorists, armed robbers and kidnappers.”

He claimed that Nigeria had become a land with two sets of laws for Nigerians, stressing that the Executive order was curious because those known and notorious to illegally possess these same arms, like herdsmen, were not even named at all.”

Part of Ozekhome’s statement read: “Ordinarily, one would have readily applauded President Muhammadu for signing an Executive Order banning possession of guns, having regard to the unbridled proliferation and possession of small and medium scale politically motivated and banditorily-induced arms currently in circulation.

“However, Buhari’s sectionalistic perceptions of governance from the opaque prism of ethnicity and religious nuances do not give one such euphoric comfort of nationalistically induced decisions.

“It seems to me a panicky measure meant to forestall the threats by Niger Delta militants to declare their Republic by 1st of June, and also for the now historic struggle by IPOB for self-determination. “Whatever be his reasons, the president and his handlers appeared to have lost the larger picture of the citizens’ rights to life and self defence.

“Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution provides for the right to life. Section 258 of the Criminal Code which operates in the Southern part of Nigeria and sections 59- 60 of the Penal Code that operates in the North, all  guarantee the right to self defence and the defence of one’s property.

“What the Executive Order has unwittingly done is to leave honest and innocent Nigerians most vulnerable to the unrestrained murderous and blood-letting activities of marauders, herdsmen, Terrorists, armed robbers and kidnappers.

Similarly, a member of the 2014 National Conference from North-Central, Elder Bulus Dareng called on President Buhari to rescind his plan on executive order to mop up guns with private individuals and consider the possibility of implementing the National  Conference report as a way addressing security challenges in the country.

Speaking with Sunday Tribune in Jos, Elder Dareng said the Executive Order to remove, evoke and banish all firearms certificate and licenses meant only illegal guns would be in circulation.

“The reasons adduced by the government are genuine but it simply means that responsible citizens can no longer own gun for self defense. So what about the AK 45 in the hand of herdsmen and other  criminals, how do you retrieve them, are they supposed to keep them. The government especially security agencies need to be more alive to their responsibilities.

“The Customs Services had intercepted many containers of gun at Nigerian border areas and ports. We have not heard what happen to those arms and those behind the importation. These illegal arms, who own them, where were they kept? Nobody is talking about them.

“By this Executive Order the government is simply preparing ground for criminals to terrorize Nigerians the more,” he alleged.

Ozekhome, Dareng oppose Buhari over Executive Order on gun licence
Tribune Online