Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA has described Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on strategy and information, as a historical loose canon who speaks from ‘both sides of his mouth.
HURIWA observed that Onanuga has become notorious for always speaking without introspection which makes him the least qualified person to speak for a Nigerian president unless the President is turning himself into a tyrant who is averse to criticism and critical thinking.
Besides, HURIWA carpeted Onanuga for his gross misinterpretation of a cover story of one of the editions of The Guardian last week in which the National newspaper categorically and rightly reported that massive hunger, poverty, deprivation, costs of living crisis have combined to drive some Nigerians into making the UNUSUAL call for military intervention just as HURIWA said the misinterpretation given to that cover story by Onanuga shows that he hardly reflects philosophically before issuing out his media statements.
HURIWA defended The Guardian as one of the most competent, professional, patriotic and ethically minded media house in Nigeria and Africa as a whole just as the Rights group condemned the deliberate mischief of misinterpretation of a cover story that narrates existential experiences of the people of Nigeria and did not in anyway endorse the calls by some few persons for a military intervention.
HURIWA also asked if Onanuga is not aware that the Senate president Godswill Akpabio was quoted as telling youths who called for protests to end bad governance in August that he, the Senate president would be inside his mansion and be eaten whilst watching the protesters on television.
HURIWA flayed Onanuga for justifying the clear disobedience of valid orders of the courts on the immediate past Kogi State governor Yahaya Bello just as the Rights group said the presidential spokesman missed the point by providing the support for the fugitive erstwhile governor to continue to defy the law even when the immunity of the governor of Kogi state did not cover the government houses whereby governors and president’s, vice president or deputy governors live to become safe havens for persons wanted by law enforcement authorities such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission or the courts of competent jurisdiction captured under Section 6nof the 1999 constitution.
The Rights group said the police or military can’t be stopped from arresting wanted persons even if they hide under the AGBADA (native clothes) of the governor or president provided the police or military operatives arresting the wanted person will simply bring the wanted person out of the Agbada (native clothes) of either the governor or even the president of Nigeria.
“We urge president Bola Ahmed Tinubu to appoint a qualified, more soberly, reflective and professional media spokesman to stop the loose Canon which Bayo Onanuga is from making Nigerians and the listening World think or believe that Nigeria is a dubgeon whereby outlaws or wanted persons can hide inside the houses of governors or president and wouldn’t be arrested because the constitutional provision of immunity from prosecution in section 308 which covers only governors, deputy governors, president and the vice president but does not cover their households to become Refuge of accused persons or persons wanted by law enforcement agencies.”
HURIWA recalled that the presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga said security agencies have not been able to arrest embattled former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello because of the “complicated” nature of the case.
Onanuga was a guest on the Sunday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-economic programme aired on Channels Television.
In April, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) declared Bello, who was Kogi governor from May 2015 to May 2023, wanted for alleged financial crime to the tune of N80.2 billion.
The EFCC had at various times, stormed Bello’s residence in an attempt to arrest the former governor but his successor, Usman Ododo, had come to his rescue, whisking him away to his lodge.
The matter has been in court but the former governor has not appeared before the trial judge despite many adjournments.
Asked why police authorities can’t order orderlies attached to Ododo to arrest Bello, Onanuga said, “I think it’s a bit complicated. The EFCC is an agency of the Federal Government, and it wants to arrest Yahaya Bello. Yahaya Bello is hiding under the agbada (flowing robe) of the governor of Kogi State, his (Bello’s) successor, who happens to enjoy immunity.
“That’s the problem because if he (Bello) stays inside Governor Ododo’s house, the police cannot do anything because they will be violating that immunity that the man enjoys.
“It’s like a diplomat enjoying certain immunity, you cannot do anything about it. You remember in the UK when they were looking for the Wikileaks man and he went to hide in one embassy in Britain, there was nothing they (security agents) could do, they left him there. I think he later came out and they arrested him.
“It’s the same thing. Ododo enjoys immunity. Yahaya Bello is believed to be hiding there. They cannot storm the place and say they want to arrest him. That’s the problem of the EFCC, and the police cannot help the EFCC.”
HURIWA disagreed with the intentional justification by Bayo Onanuga of the refusal of Yahaya Bello to surrender himself to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission just as the Rights group faulted the position of Bayo Onanuga on the ground that the immunity from prosecution does not cover the houses of those who enjoy immunity because the idea being conveyed by Bayo Onanuga is that the state house in Abuja and government Houses occupied by governors and deputy governors are safe havens for wanted persons and that the law enforcement agencies can’t arrest suspected persons who entered those places just because the governor, deputy governor, president and vice president enjoy immunity from prosecution. “This explanation by Onanuga is spurious, laughable and fallacious.”
“The immunity from prosecution as provided for by the Nigerian constitution did not turn government houses into REFUGE OF SUSPECTS AND ACCUSED PERSONS who can’t be arrested by security forces”.
