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Fiery Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) has expressed worry for the incoming administration of Alhaji Umar Musa Yar'adua, saying he did not envy the president-elect for taking over from President Olusegun Obasanjo, a man who, he said, had attracted much hatred for himself from Nigerians.
Fiery Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) has expressed worry for the incoming administration of Alhaji Umar Musa Yar'adua, saying he did not envy the president-elect for taking over from President Olusegun Obasanjo, a man who, he said, had attracted much hatred for himself from Nigerians.
Alhaji Yar'adua, largely seen as a protégé of the President, in view of the circumstance of his emergence as the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, has vowed to continuewith Obasanjo's legacies and policies.
Fawehinmi, who shared his feelings with Daily Sun at the weekend said he sympathised with the president-elect because of the possibility of Nigerians transferring their hatred to him.
His words: "He is taking over from a man who has ben able to attract to himself in many quarters, hatred from Nigerian people. I don't envy him."
The human rights activist, also traced the alleged fraud perpetrated in the April elections to the failure of the judiciary to effectively punish corruption since 1999.
Describing the polls as a monumental fraud and "veritable electoral robbery," the senior advocate argued that the voters were robbed of their fundamental rights to freely choose who they wanted as their leader.
"The robbery was across board. Through all sorts of fraud, manipulation, rigging and falsification of results. The major political parties were involved. The only thing is that the party at the centre did more havoc than many others, in the sense that it was in the control of the security apparatus of the state," the Senior Advocate of Nigeria said.
He contended that the malpractice Nigerians witnessed during the elections were brought about by the huge magnitude of corruption in the country.
"The judiciary is not helping matters. The judiciary, by its restrictive and dry interpretation of the constitution is not punishing corruption. It is not punishing corrupt people. All the big men, president, vice president, governors, deputy governors and others have been hiding under Section 308 of the Constitution. We are saddened by the restrictive attitude of the judiciary."
On the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for instance, he noted that court judgements seemed to frustrate all the efforts of the commission which was set up to fight graft.
"Everywhere is an avalanche of opposition to the EFCC. Inside the courts, outside the courts. It appears to me now that the opposition to EFCC is so overwhelming," Fawehinmi surmised.
On the call for the cancellation of the results and setting up of an Interim National Government (ING), Chief Fawehinmi maintained that the Obasanjo regime would not cancel the result because his party was the "kingpin of the robbery."
"They are the robbers. They cannot cancel the election, unless the unthinkable happens," he said.