NHRC, Abuja agencies agree on suspending nightclub raids – TheNigerialawyer

The National Human Rights Commission said on Sunday that it had
reached a resolution with the Abuja Environmental Protection Board
and other agencies of the Federal Capital Territory Administration
to suspend the raids of nightclubs and other leisure places in
Abuja.

The Director Corporate Affairs and External Linkages of the
NHRC, Lambert Oparah, said in a statement that the resolution was
reached at a meeting between the representatives of the NHRC, the
AEPB and civil society organisations.

Oparah recalled in his statement that the NHRC had on May 10,
2019 issued summons on the Director of the AEPB following
complaints received from some civil society organisations “over
allegations of raids on nightclubs, arrests, molestations and
sexual assaults of some women by agents of the FCT led by the
AEPB”.

He said in obedience to the summons, the Coordinator of Abuja
Municipal Metropolitan Council, Alhaji Baba Lawal alongside the
Directors, Security Services, Social Welfare, Development Control
and AEPB, appeared before the NHRC on May 16.

He said the representatives of the various civil society groups
led by the Head of the Amnesty International Mr. Osai Ojigho, were
also in attendance.

The statement read in part, “At the end of the meeting the
summary of the resolutions were as follows:

“That further raids by the FCT Task Force should be put on hold
pending the mainstreaming of human rights into their
operations.

“That issues concerning the distortion of master plan of the FCT
should be targeted at business owners and the FCT officials
themselves who approve such alterations and not the innocent
citizens of the FCT using the facilities provided.”

It was also resolved that an investigation would be “carried to
fish out and bring to book those officials and security agents who
perpetrated the various acts of violation and impunity in the
course of the raids”.

“A meeting between the clubs, similar business owners, and the
FCT be facilitated by the NHRC to reduce noise pollution in Abuja,
ensure respect for the right of others, the rule of law and
compliance to official regulations”, the statement added.

He noted that the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Tony Ojukwu,
had observed at the meeting that the allegations over the
molestation of women in FCT had raised a lot of public concern.

Ojukwu was said to have explained that the NHRC’s intervention
in the matter, in line with its powers and mandate, was not a
witch-hunt but to correct the wrongs, and forestall future
occurrences to check impunity.

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Joint Account: Governors Urge Buhari to Call NFIU to
Order

Nigeria’s 36 governors have approached the President of the
Federal Republic and Commander-In-chief of the armed Forces,
President Muhammadu Buhari on the decision by the Nigerian
Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to dabble into a matter that is
beyond its mandate.

The Chairman of the NGF and Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz
Yari Abubakar, signed off a letter in which governors expressed
“dismay and angst at this brazen attempt by the NFIU to ridicule
our collective integrity and show total disregard for the
constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria (1999) as
amended.

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, which was
excised from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, set June
1, 2019, as the takeoff date of the new order, making it compulsory
for all LGA allocations to go straight to their respective bank
accounts. The decision is contained in a guideline released by the
NFIU after a lengthy meeting with officials of commercial banks in
Abuja.

But in a swift reaction, the NGF Letter was titled Re: NFIU
Enforcement and Guidelines to Reduce Crime Vulnerabilities Created
by Cash Withdrawal from Local Government Funds Throughout Nigeria
Effective June 1st, 2019.

The letter is dated May 15th, 2019.

Extracting copiously from the constitution, governors drew the
attention of the President to section (6) (a) and (b) which confers
on the States and National Assemblies the powers to make provisions
for statutory allocation of Public revenue to the Local Councils in
the Federation and within the states respectively.

Similarly, the Governors added, Section 162 (6) expressly
provides for the creation of the States Joint Local Government
Account (SJLGA) into which shall be paid all allocations to the
LGAs of the State from the Federation Account and from the
government of the state.

The NGF Chairman emphasises that nothing in the NFIU Act 2018
gives the body the powers that it seeks to exercise in the
guidelines that it released and is therefore acting in excess of
its powers and by so doing, Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar added, NFIU
exhibits complete disregard of the constitution of Nigeria.

The NGF Chairman further accused the NFIU of “stoking mischief
and also deliberately seeking to cause disaffection, chaos and
overheat the polity.”

The NGF says that Local Government Councils are a creation of
the constitution and are not financial institutions. They are,
governors also said, not Reporting entities and are therefore not
under the NFIU in the manner contemplated by the NFIU so-called
guidelines.

In principle the NFIU should concentrate on its core mandate of
Anti-money laundering AML activities and Combatting financing
Terrorism CTF as prescribed in the Act establishing it and should
desist from encroaching on or even breaching constitutional
provisions.

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) is the Nigerian
arm of the global financial intelligence Units (FIUs) once
domiciled within the EFCC but now for the purpose of institutional
location domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria. This means the
NFIU is only mandated to trace or track laundered money that finds
its way into terrorism financing and report such to the nation’s
security agencies. The NFIU should seek to comply with those
standards on combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism
and its proliferation as stipulated and not dabble into matters
that are both constitutional and beyond NFIU purview.

Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo
Head, Media and Public Affairs
Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat
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