By Chukwudum Ebele
An Onitsha lawyer, Ejike Efobi, has stated that belonging to a proscribed group like Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, is never an offence punishable by death or shoot-on-sight. Rather, he said, it is an offence that could be handled by a court of competent jurisdiction.
He noted that by shooting and killing people on mere suspicion of committing an offence, like was alleged to be the case with members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, law enforcement agents appeared to have abolished the court system, an act he tagged “the height of tyranny.”
On the recent killing in Emene, Enugu, Efobi declared: ‘The Nigerian situation is very complex. We claim to have laws guiding us but the law does not permit the killing of Nigerian citizens as animals. It is not an offence punishable with death to belong to a proscribed organisation. The due process of arrest and investigation, if there is an alleged commission of offence, must be followed. It is after trial that the court will issue a decree sentencing the suspect, if found guilty.
By killing someone for merely suspecting that he or she committed an offence, you have abolished the court system as a height of tyranny. The court is an entitlement to an accused person, no matter the weight of such an accusation. Therefore, the killing of IPoB members, or any other person, without trial, is not justifiable and cannot be justified in any circumstance. The worst would have been to arrest them.
He added that “even an armed robber cannot be shot at, except where his arrest will put you in great danger. The proscription order against IPoB was procured from Abuja High Court. but I am aware that IPoB is currently in an Appeal Court to challenge it.”