…Lawmakers kick, as Falana sues military

By Balarabe Alkassim, Clement A. Oloyede, Ronald Mutum (Abuja) & Abdullateef Aliyu


Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Army yesterday expressed reservations about the Operation Positive Identification which the military begins nationwide today.

The lawmakers had earlier called on President Muhammadu Buhari to prevail on the army not to embark on the exercise by which Nigerians are required to move about with means of identification.

But the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-General Tukur Buratai, yesterday told the lawmakers that Buhari and the Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi, were in support of the operation.

He said first launched in the northeast in September, would be conducted nationwide to intercept Boko Haram insurgents who had relocated from their enclaves to other parts of the country.

Buratai, represented by the Head of Civil-Military Affairs, Army Headquarters, Major-General U.S Usman, noted that the exercise would not involve movement of troops or their presence in communities. Rather, he emphasised, it is a special operation fused into ongoing operations.

He repeated that the operation did not involve mounting of checkpoints or military incursions into communities.

According to him, it is an intelligence-based operation to intercept insurgents and other criminal elements relocating from the army’s theatres of operations to other parts of the country.

He said the precarious situation of the nation prompted the army to initiate various operations to tackle the security challenges facing the country.

He said soldiers had been deployed to 34 states of the federation owing to the spate of insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other crimes.

He noted that the army does not operate in isolation, but always works with other security agencies in its operations.

According to him, if the army arrests criminals, it hands them over to the police except for insurgents detained and profiled by the army depending on the situation.

The committee chairman, Abdulrazak Namdaz, said the House was concerned with the issue of identification during the operations which, he said, was not in the purview of the army but should have been left for the police, the Nigerian Immigration Service and other security agencies.

“It cannot take effect from tomorrow (today). We have actually told them that this thing requires sensitisation, will require a lot of media work, press conferences and Nigerians need to be fully informed; we will talk to relevant authorities to see that this thing is shifted in terms of identification,” he said.

A member of the committee, Ahmed Jaha, said though the need for the operation was understandable, its concept and approach should be adjusted since it was being extended to other areas outside the main theatres of operations.

Meanwhile, human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has sued the army and the Attorney-General of the Federation over the army’s planned Operation Positive Identification (OPI) across the nation.

In the suit, which also joined the Chief of Army Staff as respondent and filed before the Federal High Court in Lagos on October 25, Falana prayed for an order of the court stopping the army from going ahead with the OPI.

He told the court that the planned nationwide operation scheduled for November 1 to December 23, 2019, “is unconstitutional, illegal, null and void.”

He argued that going by Section 217(1) of the Constitution, the Nigerian President could only deploy the armed forces for the suppression of insurrection and acting in aid of civil authorities to restore law and order. But that “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 November 1, 2019 to December 23, 2019.”

Falana therefore urged the court to declare that the army is not empowered to take over police duties.

Also reacting yesterday, a former Deputy Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olabode George, described the operation as “totally wrong footed, dangerous, unprecedented, a flagrant assault upon constitutional democracy.”

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/army-begins-operation-identification-nationwide-today.html

clam down has begun or began
which is correct?




..




manna avoid this thread

Meaning we must now move about with one of the following

NIMC

Driver's License

Voters Card


National I'D Card

Etc.


Well, I have two of the aforelisted....abi na Int'l passport?

#BringThemOn

Not too bad,security comes first.if the immigration officers only wants to work at the airport then why not army intervene.

I thought they denied Operation +ID

Okay oo

My only concern is soldiers not abusing the exercise in maltreating people or to enrich their pockets. You will be surprised hearing your international passport isn't valid hence you need to get them settled.

It's the shirt seller again! Check my signature below for more details.

This terrorist army is getting too close with civilians, it will get to a point they will want to take over power.

Anything military should be left in sambisa forest not even barracks

If its army I fear nothing cause of there discipline, though to me this should be left to the police, this is not the job of the army

But the Nigerian police is so useless that they will turn it into an extortion ring, efcc needs to investigate our police force..


All those people quoting me and saying its a lie, that Nigerian army is not discipline, if they were not by now them for dae catch yahoo boys

Good

Wow ....

So if an Ibo trader in Awka has no id card, he is a Boko Haram insurgent from Maiduguri, abi?

omoiyamayor:
Not too bad,security comes first.if the immigration officers only wants to work at the airport then why not army intervene.

Na so.. Before you know we go begin kneel down for road, do frog jump and the likes, abeg... I just need to leave here, where is my destiny helper ooo..

Anoda Avenue for police to collect bribe

I'm in support of this but it shouldn't be an avenue to harass citizens unnecessarily

They should take this operation to daura and North East...

Buhari effect continues

If you dey outside this jungle. You're very lucky.

Only an enemy of the state would go against this operation... God bless Nigeria

If i talk now lalasticlala, ishilove, mynd44 and even dominique go take me back to their yeye prison sey I abuse government. Na all of us go hear am together

What rubbish!

Some people actually support this arrant nonsense?

When we all know getting even temporary nimc card na war... a lot of folks don't have this shi, This is just a flagrant display of misplaced priorities

It's a good development. It happens in advance countries so why should we be different. If a police officer stops you either on the road or the walkway (in US and Co) the first thing they ask is 'can I see your ID please?' They expect that you must carry an ID which will serve as your first way to defend yourself against mistaken identity and the only way to confirm that you're actually who you said you are.

buchhy:
I'm in support of this but it shouldn't be an avenue to harass citizens unnecessarily

and you think the Nigeria army that we all know will not harass innocent Nigerians?

Why do Nigerians get worried when things like this happen, the handwriting has been on the wall for long

naijadrivablog:
I thought they denied Operation +ID

So you dont know Buhari govt and lies again