Posted by By GODWIN TSA and JOY MBAEYI, Abuja on
The Supreme Court has affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeal that releasing the detained leader of the Niger-Delta Peoples Volunteers Force [NDPVF], Alhaji Mujaheed Asari Dokubo, would be prejudicial to national security.
The Supreme Court has affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeal that releasing the detained leader of the Niger-Delta Peoples Volunteers Force [NDPVF], Alhaji Mujaheed Asari Dokubo, would be prejudicial to national security.
In addition, the court further agreed with the appellate court that a charge of treasonable felony is a very serious offence and is therefore prejudicial to national security.
According to the highest court of the land, 'the corporate existence of Nigeria as a united, harmonious, indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation is certainly greater than any citizen's liberty or right. Once the security of this nation is in jeopardy and it survives in pieces rather than in peace, the individual's liberty or right may not even exist."
Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed, who delivered the judgment, noted that the pronouncement by the Court of Appeal is that where national security is threatened or there is the real likelihood of its being threatened, human rights or the individual rights of those responsible takes second place. Human rights or individual rights must be suspended until national security can be protected or well taken care of.
He held that the provisions of section 35 of the 1999 constitution are not absolute.
According to him, 'personal liberty of an individual within the contemplation of section 35 [1] of the constitution is a qualified right in the context of this case and virtue of sub section [1] [C] permits restriction on individual liberty in the course of judicial inquiry or where, as in this case, the appellant was arrested on suspicion of having committed a felony."
'I believe neither the appellant nor his counsel would seat down to fold up his arms, if on the seat of power, to allow any citizen to put his rein into terror and utter hopelessness or despondency while dancing to the music of a citizen who plots a coup' detat against him.
He will certainly fight to the end."
Dokubo was arrested by the police and arraigned before a Federal high court on a five count charge of conspiracy; treasonable felony; forming; managing and assisting in managing an unlawful society. Ever since, his legal battle to regain his freedom beginning from the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court has continued.