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The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) yesterday urged President Goodluck Jonathan to speedily honour the advice of the National Judicial Council (NJC) by reinstating the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami.
The group also cited a recent report by a federal government panel which revealed that private armed men used by some state governments in Nigeria metamorphosed into armed and terrorist groups in the country.
Briefing newsmen after their meeting in Abuja, Chairman of TMG, Mashood Erubami, said the hesitation of Jonathan to implement the recommendation to reinstate Salami is a systematic erosion of the independence of the judiciary.
He however carpeted the NJC for not considering the need to lift the suspension on Salami until all election petitions had been concluded.
He said, “Recently, the NJC recommended that Salami should be reinstated. President Jonathan who acted on the suspension of Salami with alarming speed is now dragging his feet on the implementation of the recommendation to reinstate him. This is a systematic erosion of the independence of the judiciary. TMG calls on President Ebele Jonathan to honour the reinstatment advice from the NJC with the same speed it took him to align with the recommendation to suspend”.
Lamenting that Nigerians now live in fear because of the failure of government to protect them, Erubami added that “various governments in Nigeria are begging armed groups who have violated the sanctity of lives of many Nigerians to come and embrace amnesty.”
Tracing the menace of the Boko Haram attacks to politicians, he said a recent government panel showed that some of the armed groups in Nigeria were created and nurtured by politicians for political intimidation of political opponents.
“Most of the state governments in Nigeria maintain and keep private armed men on their payroll to rig elections. After elections, the arms are turned against ordinary Nigerians. Again, the altercation between the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Presidency/PDP over Boko Haram shows that all is not well with this government.”
The group however called on the government to find an immediate and lasting solution to the Boko Haram war against Nigerians.
While TMG also called for a revisit of the implementation of the Justice Uwais report on electoral reform, it urged the national assembly to publish directives to law enforcement agencies as well as its specific recommendations with regards to its present and past probes.
