₦airaland Forum

Any state governor is for the interest of the state first. Who is that person that will employ people from other states at the expense of his state people ? Do this is not a good issue to discuss in trying to discredit him, that's even if the storey is true

Without going far, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State had assured Nigerians that come January 2023 the G-5 Governors will declare their support on a particular presidential candidate. Wike personally made this declaration late last year at the heat of passion when the presidential campaign commenced,

Few weeks to the presidential election the G-5 governors are still confused and yet to decide. Please Nigerians should not take these men serious. We Nigerians are not waiting for them to tell us who to vote for, we have already made up our minds on who to vote for.

They are not considering the interest of the masses but their own selfish interest, that is why it has taken them till now to bargain and negotiate with these aspirants first. If they were considering the interest of Nigerians first, amongst the four notable presidential aspirants they know who is most qualified. They don't have what it takes to make a concrete decision

Barr Nkereuwem Anana

Without going far, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State had assured Nigerians that come January 2023 the G-5 Governors will declare their support on a particular presidential candidate. Wike personally made this declaration late last year at the heat of passion when the presidential campaign commenced,

Few weeks to the presidential election the G-5 governors are still confused and yet to decide. Please Nigerians should not take these men serious. We Nigerians are not waiting for them to tell us who to vote for, we have already made up our minds on who to vote for.

They are not considering the interest of the masses but their own selfish interest, that is why it has taken them till now to bargain and negotiate with these aspirants first. If they were considering the interest of Nigerians first, amongst the four notable presidential aspirants they know who is most qualified. They don't have what it takes to make a concrete decision

Barr Nkereuwem Anana

CBN

Such proposal deeming convicted persons. innocent until Appeal is decided, is certainly erroneous and runs contrary to extant constitutional provisions ...

BY NKEREUWEM ANANA
(Former Prosecutor for the EFCC)


An erstwhile Prosecutor for the EFCC, Mr Nkereuwem Anana, has described as unconstitutional, a proposed amendment of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act by the senate deeming convicted persons innocent of crime until their appeal has been concluded.

According to Anana, the proposed amendedment is not only unconstitutional, but also dead on arrival

Recall that the Senate had on Wednesday Dec. 7, began moves to amend the ACJA to allow Persons convicted by the lower court to be presumed innocent until conclusion of appeal

The bill sponsored by senator Chukwuka Utazi (PDP Enugu North) seeks to avert possible sufferings which convicted persons would have undergone between the period the persons were sentenced by a lower court and when set free by the appellant Court

Senator Utazi had said that bail is a fundamental principle of criminal justice system in every civilized society adding that a situation where a person is convicted, sentenced and committed to prison custody and serves out his term but is eventually acquitted by the apex court, will amount to bridging the rights of the citizen.

This proposed amendment has however been greeted with mixed reactions from a cross section of the nation, with some calling for a second look at the proposal

Meanwhile, the author of this piece, Mr Nkereuwem Anana who recently exited service as a prosecutor for the EFCC, puts his thoughts on the issue succinctly while stating as follows :

"There are so many things we do not need to embark on as a country because of the far reaching consequences and so as not to make us more miserable before other nations. If this was to succeed, the psychological impact on prosecution agencies, individual prosecutors and the judges cannot be remedied. Nigeria would be the first country of the world where no act is criminalized.

"No Act of the National Assembly can amend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or any of its sections. Section 4 ( of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria states:
Save as otherwise provided by this Constitution, the exercise of legislative powers by the National Assembly or by a House of Assembly shall be subject to the jurisdiction of courts of law and of judicial tribunals established by law, and accordingly, the National Assembly or a House of Assembly shall not enact any law, that ousts or purports to oust the jurisdiction of a court of law or of a judicial tribunal established by law.

"The said contemplated legislation seems to oust the jurisdiction of court in criminal matters. All this is happening because 2 senators have been convicted and currently serving prison terms. Nigerian Laws are basically for the poor and not for the rich. This is a country where a court will order a person to appear before it but because the individual is greater than the court, he will refuse to appear and no consequences attached to such impunity.

Section 35(1) Every person shall be entitled to his personal liberty and no person shall be deprived of such liberty save in the following cases and in accordance with a procedure permitted by law

in execution of the sentence or order of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty;

Section 36 (5) states (5) Every person who is charged with a criminal offence shall be presumed to be innocent until he is proved guilty;

The Constitution without equivocation has stated the circumstances wherein a person shall be convicted which is not on appeal. It is only in football where a goal scored is not celebrated in some circumstances until the verdict of the VAR. That system cannot be adopted into the Nigerian legal system to wait for the appeal court before the conviction is celebrated by the prosecution. The shameless efforts to amend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by way of an enactment is a nullity and shall not stand. Without a clear amendment of the Constitution itself, our legislators who embark on the journey of using an enactment to amend our Constitution become the authorities contemplated by Section 1 (1) of the same Constitution.

The court has powers where a statute is enacted in breach of the Constitution which is to declare such statute illegal and unconstitutional. See the case of NWOKEDI v. ANAMBRA STATE GOVT & ANOR (2022) LPELR-57033(SC)


AUTHOR
NKEREUWEM ANANA
LEGAL PRACTITIONER / FORMER PROSECUTOR ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES COMMISSION (EFCC)

We are the ones contesting through Peter Obi, so no noice please

This man will win hands down, no one of them can compare to his record. It's envy

Your hair cannot grow overnight, so don't want to grow hair overnight, ordinary Soul mate cream can grow your hair, Imy hair has reached 4 months and so it has well become afro. The way you are going you will regret it

Please how do we post on naira land

I need to post information on naira land on the coming week, I don't know how to go about it please

This is when she came to obudu on cross River State

We cannot take this

Obi you will govern this country in 2023

Stop insulting anybody because she is not speaking for you she has her own opinion and you have yours. Stop the insult naira landers

I agree with you

He did well then, but what we are saying now is that he is too old to lead us. How can a man of 84 years want to be president

The DSS does not have the balls to do anything let them stop talking because you cannot deceive us.

Yahaya bello is a child of circumstances, he is not a good leader and can never be it

No. He will still dump you again for another lady,

We are not saying Tinubu did not try in government but a man of 84 years cannot lead us please stop posting rubbish

Dino should calm down, Obi is winning, if your hope is in rigging, you can't do it, where are your own followers

Nawa o, so repairing phone doesn't make him a big boy. What do you do sef, nonsense

Soak garri eat with morning beans

Is Kaduna a name of someone

Na Muric go tell CAN or CAN go tell Muric hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Let him vote for Peter Obi if he needs job

What will happen if they are exposed

Buhari cannot deceive me, I'm bigger than that

Blasphemy

God will not forgive your mouth

Whether prices is going down for this particular investment or not but he invested money. How many state governors invest states money

Please don't buy Oppo phone. I saw on the packet that this phone is not to be sold anywhere than in Nigeria. It means the phone is inferior to inferior phones