[Naijanet] THE GANIYU ADAMS FILE - Friday August 24, 2001
Bolaji Aluko
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THE GANIYU ADAMS FILE - Friday August 24, 2001
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SubFile 01
BBC
Friday, 24 August, 2001, 07:46 GMT 08:46 UK
Lagos vigilantes protest over leader's arrest
Supporters of a vigilante group in the Nigerian city of Lagos have
disrupted the commercial area of the city with a tyre-burning protest
over the arrest of their leader.
The protest lasted several hours before police restored order.
There were no arrests. The vigilantes belong to a proscribed
organisation, known as the Odua People's Congress, which has been
involved in a campaign of direct and often violent action against street
criminals.
Their leader, Ganiyu Adams, was detained on Wednesday.
He faces charges of murder and public disturbance, arising out of
inter-communal violence in Lagos last year.
>From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
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SubFile 02
This Day
Activists Insist on Speedy Trial for OPC Leader
..Heavens will not fall - Okiro
By Segun Fatuase, Joseph Adeyeye, Anne Damisa, Juliana Taiwo, Mabel
Igbinoba in Lagos, Kayode Abdulwahab in Ilorin and Ademola Adeyemo in
Ibadan
Prominent human rights activists and groups yesterday called for a
speedy trial of detained militant leader of the Oodua People's Congress
(OPC), Mr Ganiyu Adams, just as members of his faction disrupted
commercial activities in central Lagos in protest against his arrest
last Wednesday.
Leader of the other faction of the group, Dr Frederick Fasehun, in an
interview with THISDAY yesterday criticised the role of the police over
its failure to make public the charges against Adams and insisted that
if the detained OPC chief was not charged within 48 hours, he will
resort to court action.
"then, we will go to court to make sure that no Nigerian citizen is
denied his democratic rights. The constitution says 48 hours after you
arrest somebody he should be in court unless he was arrested on Friday
night which means he would not be able to appear in court the next day
being Saturday nor Sunday but Monday," he asserted.
In the same vein, radical lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi and Director of
the Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG), Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti
urged the police to charge Adams to court within 24 hours as stipulated
in the 1999 Constitution and not treat him as a scapegoat.
While Fawehinmi appealed to members and supporters of OPC to allow the
due process of law to take its course, Beko was pessimistic about the
ability of the police to accord the detained Adams his rights under the
law.
According to him, "the police, judging by its past activities, have been
a tool for human rights violation. There have been many people who are
languishing in police detention without trial. CCG believes that such
human rights abuses should stop."
The National Conscience Party (NCP) while commenting on the travails of
Adams urged the police not to hold any ethnic human rights agitator
responsible for the assumed or real excesses of its members, unless it
can be proved beyond doubt that the leader is directly involved in
alleged criminal acts.
"Persecution of ethnic leaders has never succeeded in taming ethnic
intolerance, tension and violence. Indeed, persecution of leaders of
ethnic organisations tends to heighten perceived ethnic marginalisation
and perseuction. For example, the unjust and cruel hanging of Ken
Saro-Wiwa and other environmental rights activists on trumped up charges
of murder heightened national tension and ethnic distrust rather than
tame agitations for self-determination in the Niger-Delta," it warned.
It urged the police to charge Adams to court if they have any evidence
of criminal culpability against him.
The Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) while reacting to the issue yesterday
appealed to members of the OPC not to resort to violence but to allow
due process of law to take its course, in the interest of peace.
Secretary General of YCE, Justice Adewale Thompson (rtd) who made the
plea in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, however, advised the police to treat
Adams as a suspect rather than a criminal and charge him to court within
24 hours.
He assured that Yoruba leaders are already looking into the matter and
appealed to OPC members to remain calm.
"Our immediate reaction is that OPC members should restrain from causing
trouble over the arrest of their leaders. The Yoruba elders are already
looking into the issue."
"We are waiting for the police. He should be charged within 24 hours
because the police have no constitutional power to detain people
indefinitely," Thompson said.
The YCE leader added that rather than an outright condemnation of the
OPC and its leaders, the group should be given credit for successfully
fighting the menace of armed robbers in many parts of the country.
"The spate of armed robbery incidents could not be handled solely by the
police. We need OPC to complement the police effort," he said.
President of the Afonja Descendants Union and Baba Oodua of Kwara State,
Alhaji Abdulkareem Olola Kasum, said Adams should not have waited to be
arrested by the police since he had been declared wanted over a year
ago.
Kasum said that Adams should have reported himself to the police.
"Gani has no skeleton at all in his cupboard so he shouldn't have hidden
himself from the police. And when he was declared wanted, he should have
voluntarily gone there to explain himself," he said.
While admitting that the arrest was a major breakthrough for the police,
Kasum stated that "the same method should be used to arrest Generals
Ibrahim Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari who have
refused to answer the call of the Oputa panel."
However, Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Mike Okiro, gave the
assurance that the arrest of the OPC leader was not going to cause a
breach of the peace, adding that "heavens will not fall because we are
equal to the task."
Okiro who said that Adams would be arraigned in court after thorough
investigations, advised OPC members to desist from causing trouble,
warning that the police will not hesitate to arrest anyone disturbing
the peace.
The police commissioner who said that the arrest of Adams confirmed that
"he is not invisible" also disclosed that the informant who tipped the
police about the faction leader's whereabouts would be paid a ransom of
N100,000.
"We will pay him but it will not be made public for security reasons,"
he said.
Meanwhile, the police have beefed up security in all its formations in
Lagos State to forestall any plan by the OPC to release the detained
Adams from custody.
Lagos State Deputy Commissioner of Police Operations, Mr Emanuel Adebayo
who said police have taken necessary preventive measures warned OPC
members not to hold any meeting in Lagos as the consequences would be
dire. "If I see them holding meetings in Lagos, we shall deal with
them," he said.
Eye-witness accounts of Thursday's protest by OPC members said that
traders and market women at the Idumota market were not allowed to open
their shops.
Another account had it that, some of the protesters made bonfires on
some major streets on the island while others distributed leaflets
demanding that the Federal Government should release their 'leader'
otherwise they would cause problems in Lagos.
However, they were reported to have dispersed before the arrival of the
police.
While the protest lasted, business activities along the Apongbon,
Central Mosque and Oke Popo areas came to a halt.
Pockets of disturbances were also recorded on Broad Street while some
area boys at Maryland were reported to have taken advantage of the
situation to extort money from motorists driving towards the island on
Ikorodu Road.
Adams was declared wanted about 18 months ago with the Police placing a
N100,000 ransom on his head.
The OPC leader was arrested on Wednesday in Ikorodu and had since being
undergoing interrogation on allegations of conspiracy, murder and arson.
The OPC leader was said to have been arrested at about 7.10 a.m, by a
police patrol team led by the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the
Owutu Police Station, Mr. E. O. Oyedele.
The car in which he was driving shortly before his arrest, a white Honda
Saloon Car, with Reg. No. CF 727 LSR was also seen parked at the police
command.
The other occupants of the vehicle, an unnamed man and two unidentified
women were said to have escaped.
Items recovered from the OPC leader include charms, prominent among
which was a dead chameleon, two rings, address books, a Teen Study Bible
(New International Version) and the sum of N2,600.
According to the source, the police spread out its dragnet for the OPC
factional leader after eyewitnesses claimed he personally led the OPC
team that invaded the Owutu Police Station last Saturday..
The OPC, which has widespread support among the Yoruba people of
southwest was formed in 1995. It was set up to fight for the autonomy of
the Yoruba, one of the three largest ethnic groups in the country.
In October 1999 and November 2000 it was involved in bloody ethnic
clashes with northern Hausa people in Lagos in which hundreds of people
died. Adams was declared a wanted man in October 1999 and the OPC was
formally banned last year.
The former apprentice cabinet-maker leads the most violent faction of
the OPC.
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Sub-File 03
Vanguard
Gani Adams: YCE, Gani, others seek fair hearing OPC members protest
arrest in Lagos, demand release
Friday 24th August, 2001)
By Emma Nnadozie, Albert Akpor & Olasunkanmi Akoni
LAGOS — ON the second day of the detention of factional leader of the
Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Gani Adams, the Yoruba Council of Elders
(YCE), otherwise known as Igbimo Agba Yoruba, Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani
Fawehinmi, the Oodua Youth Movement (OYM) and Centre for Constitutional
Governance (CCG) among others asked that he be offered a fair hearing.
However, activities were paralysed in parts of Lagos Island for several
hours yesterday as scores of members of the Oodua People’s Congress
(OPC) staged a peaceful protest over Wednesday’s arrest of
Adams by the police. They demanded his release within 48 hours.
The police responded immediately by beefing up security in all parts of
the state and warning to deal with anyone who stages further protest
over Adam’s arrest. The protesting OPC members began their procession at
the all-important Nnamdi Azikwe Street in Central Lagos at about 10.00
a.m. They wore mournful faces, but were orderly.
They carried placards in which they asked that Adams be released
forthwith. As they moved towards Idumota Square, shop-owners along the
road began to lock up, while motorists parked their vehicles or deserted
the area completely.
The protesters also pasted on walls copies of a poster with the
following message: "This is to announce to the general public that if
the Federal Government fails to release or maltreat President Gani
Adams, the leader of OPC within 48 hours after this, we shall not be
reluctant to take our usual action.
"We are ready to shake the nation. We are ready to sensitise the people.
We are ready to oppose government oppression.
"N.B. All market women, commercial drivers, and general public to stay
at home."
The police later used tear gas to disperse the protesters. No arrest was
made.
Deputy Commissioner of Police in-Charge of Operations, Mr. Emmanuel
Adebayo told Vanguard that the protest started around 6.00 a.m.
yesterday near the Central Mosque in Lagos and spread to Broad Street,
Idumota and Okepopo areas of Lagos State.
According to him, "hoodlums suspected to be members of the disbanded OPC
took to the streets in the area circulating inciting leaflets, and
asking Federal Government to release their leader immediately, or they
will resort of crisis.
"As soon as we heard that, our men were deployed to the area and they
were cleared. Also on Wednesday, area boys were seen harassing and
extorting money from motorists in Maryland. We have taken care of them
and we are still patrolling the area. For now, Lagos is calm."
The state police boss, Mr. Okiro later told Vanguard on telephone that
the police were equal to the task and would not hesitate to clamp down
on any group disturbing the peace of the state.
YCE, Fawehinmi, others react
Reacting to the arrest of Adams yesterday, Secretary-General of the YCE,
Justice Adewale Thompson (rtd.) cautioned the police against maltreating
the OPC factional leader.
He said the suspect should be charged to court within 24 hours if the
police had any thing against him.
Said he: "Our immediate reaction is that OPC members should restrain
from causing any trouble on the arrest of Adams. The Yoruba elders are
already looking into the issue."
"We are waiting seriously for the police. He should be charged to court
within 24 hours because the police have no constitutional power to
detain people indefinitely.
"Let me add, Gani Adams should not be treated as a criminal because the
whole of Yoruba nation believes that OPC is out to salvage the bad
security situation in Yoruba land. I recommend a thorough investigation
of the issues."
According to him, "a lot of foreigners have been coming to Yoruba land
as raiders and the police as currently constituted are incapable of
providing the necessary security for the people.
"All these armed robbery incidents are raids by foreigners and the
police can not handle the situation. The generality of the people have
to look for ways of providing their own security."
Justice Thompson said that the moment the police decided on what to do
with the OPC factional leader, "appropriate course of action by Yoruba
elders will follow."
On his part, Lagos lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi said: "Like any other
Nigerian, Mr. Gani Adams should be accorded his full fundamental rights
under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
"I appeal to members and supporters of his organisation to allow the due
process of law to be followed and to eschew all forms of violence in the
interest of peace, stability and democracy."
Also reacting, the Centre for Constitutional Governance (CCG) said: "The
Nigerian constitution as it is today, though with too many flaws, does
not allow the police or any security agent for that matter to detain any
citizen beyond 24 hours without trial in any law court.
"The police, judging by its past activities has been a tool for human
rights violation. There have been many people who are languishing in
police detention without trial. CCG believes that such human rights
abuse should stop.
"Mr. Gani Adams should, as a matter of urgency and constitutional
rights, not be kept beyond the stipulated twenty-four hours as
entrenched in the Nigeria constitution without trial in a law court. He
should be given a fair hearing and must not be used as a scapegoat."
Leader of Egbe Afenifere, Chief Abraham Adesanya had earlier said the
group would decide at the appropriate time on its reaction to Adams’
arrest, while founder of OPC, Dr. Frederick Fasehun warned that nothing:
must happen to him (Adams) because we all know that he is with the
police.
"His fundamental rights should be respected, his democratic rights
should not be abused and he should be allowed to go through the normal
process of law with adequate legal representation, if he has committed
any offence."
The Gani Fawehinmi-led National Conscience Party NCP, said: "Let the
police charge Mr. Gani Adams to court if they have any evidence of
criminal culpability against him and let the rule of law, through its
due process take its course."
In Ilorin, President of the Afonja Descendents Union (ADU), Alhaji Olola
Karim appealed to OPC members to remain calm. But he warned the police
against torturing Adams.
-----
SubFile 04
The Guardian
Friday, August 24, 2001
Police may arraign Ganiyu Adams today
Calls for caution heighten
By Mustapha Ogunshakin, Ben Akparanta (Lagos) Iyabo Sotunde (Ibadan) and
Abiodun Fagbemi (Ilorin)
FACTIONAL leader of Odu'a Peoples Congress, (OPC), Mr. Ganiyu Adams, may
be arraigned today at the Ikeja Chief Magistrate Court, even as calls
for caution heightened yesterday.
The police, apparently aware of the legal implications of detaining him
for more than 24 hours, altered their plan for his trial while the
number of charges being prepared against him has risen from 15 to 25.
Sources close to the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, said yesterday
that the police who have, before arraignment in court, gone on air to
hang charges of treason, culpable homicide and conspiracy on Adams'
neck, are yet to send his file to the Attorney-General for prosecution.
"The police must arraign him before a court of competent Jurisdiction,
as they cannot hold him without charges for more than 24 hours", the
source said.
The source said further that, considering the place of his arrest and
proximity to the headquarters of the Lagos State Police Command, Adams
may likely be taken to Ikeja magistrate court.
But calling for caution yesterday in Ibadan, the Yoruba Council of
Elders, (YCE), said the police must not treat Adams as a criminal.
The Secretary-General of YCE, otherwise known as the Igbimo Agba Yoruba,
Justice Adewale Thampson (rtd), in a chat with The Guardian, however
admonished OPC members to refrain from causing trouble in protest
against the arrest of their leader, saying Yoruba elders have waded into
the matter.
"We are seriously waiting for the police. He should be charged to court
within 24 hours, because the police have no constitutional power to
detain people indefinitely," he said.
"Let me add, Ganiyu Adams should not be treated as a criminal because
the whole Yoruba nation believe that the OPC is out to salvage the bad
security situation in Yorubaland. I recommend a thorough investigation
of the issues," the YCE boss stated.
While canvassing the use of vigilance groups in the fight against crime
in the country, Justice Thompson noted that the police cannot handle the
increased crime rate, "hence the generality of the people must look
inwards to provide their security."
Also in a statement entitled: "Arrest of Gani Adams: No cause for
Alarm", the Oodua Youth Movement, condemned the police for denying
Adams, the opportunity to talk at the press briefing where he was
paraded on Wednesday.
The statement signed by the group's president, Femi Obayori and general
secretary, Funso Mojuba said: "We in the Oodua's Youth Movement (OYM),
express our solidarity with the Oodu'a Peoples Congress (OPC) over the
purported arrest of their leader Ogbeni Gani Adams.
"We wish to seize this opportunity to express our dismay over the
attempt by the Nigerian Police to conceal the facts, gag Gani Adams, put
words into his mouth and put heinous charges on him, as evident from the
conduct of their stage managed press briefing aired on NTA Network News,
Wednesday 22nd August, 2001.'
"We affirm that the Oodua Peoples Congress led by Gani Adams, is a
political organisation that is fighting for the self-determination of
the Yoruba people; that members of the organisation are not touts and
criminals and that Gani Adams the arrested leader, is a revolutionary
youth and political activist.
"We challenge the Nigerian State to face the real issue through a
recourse to civilised and human procedures rather than resort to
sentiment and character denigration as demonstrated by the Police
spokesman. Gani Adams' arrest is a continuation of the caliphate war
against the Yoruba people and evidence that the Obasanjo-led government
will stop at nothing to placate the caliphate and secure a second term,
come 2003.
Reacting to Adams' arrest in Ilorin, President of Afonja Descendants'
Union (ADU), Alhaji Abdulkarim Olola Kasum, said the police must not
torture Adams to get confessional statement from him.
He said if government is sincere with its claim of not tolerating any
sacred cow in the country, the police must also arrest the former
military rulers who have refused to appear before Justice Oputa human
rights violations investigations panel.
He said: "The same method used by the police should be used to arrest
Generals Ibrahim Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar and Mohammadu Buhari,
who have refused to answer the call of the Oputa Panel. This is because
there is just little difference in the crime allegedly committed by
Adams and the ex-Heads of States.
"But if the police fail to arrest them, then President (Olusegun)
Obasanjo's claim that there won't be any sacred cow, is just a ruse and
an ordinary political statement" he added.
Kasum urged the OPC members to refraine from violent act, following the
arrest of their leader.
Also in Lagos yesterday, Lagos lawyer and human rights crusader, Chief
Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), pro-democracy activist, Dr. Beko Ransone-Kuti and
Mr. Femi Aborishade, urged the police to accord Adams his rights under
the 1999 Constitution.
"Like any other Nigerian, Mr. Ganiyu Adams should be accorded his full
fundamental rights under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria," Fawehinmi said in a statement.
He also appealed to members and supporters of the OPC, to "allow the due
process of law to be followed and to eschew all forms of violence in the
interest of peace, stability and democracy."
Beko, who is the director of Centre for Constitutional Governance,
(CCG), said that Adams, as a matter of urgency and constitutional
rights, should not be kept beyond the stipulated 24 hours in custody
without trial in a law court.
"He should be given a fair hearing and must not be used as scapegoat,"
he said.
Beko noted that judging by its past activities, the police have been a
tool for human rights violation, recalling instances of people
languishing in police detention without trial.
"The CCG believes that such human rights abuse should stop," he said.
Aborishade, National Secretary General of the National Conscience Party
(NCP), said: "Parading Mr. Gani Adams publicly in chains, is clearly a
violation of his dignity. The principles of criminal prosecution are
based on presuming an accused innocent until the contrary is proved
beyond doubt."
Aborishade said although the NCP is opposed to ethnic violence that has
become the norm in all parts of Nigeria today, the police should not
attempt to hold any ethnic rights agitator responsible for the assumed
or real excesses of members, supporters and sympathisers of an ethnic
organisation unless proven otherwise.
"The concern of the National Conscience Party (NCP), is that the
Nigerian authorities should not just be interested in merely clamping
down on the several ethnic organisations with a view to using them as
scapegoats of a decayed social system.
"Rather, the Nigerian government should address the root cause of
unprecedented economic deprivation and ethnic intolerance," he said.
Aborishade listed provision of employment, food, health, housing,
education, water, electricity, transportation, telecommunications and
security of life and property as fundamental rights the people should
have access to.
Besides, he explained that having the opportunity to form political
parties of their choice for political power and change of society,
through the electoral process, would minimise ethnic intolerance and
national insecurity.
While stressing that persecution of ethnic leaders had never succeeded
in taming ethnic intolerance, tension and violence as exemplified by the
hanging of environmental rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, the NCP scribe
urged the police to charge Gani Adams to court if he is found capable of
allegations against him.
Also berating the police for the way they treated Adams on Wednesday, a
pro-democracy orgaisation, Free Democracy, said Mr. Mike Okiro acted
emotionally by asking Adams: "Why are you killing my men?"
The groups' National Coordinator, Mr. Steve Adaramoye said: "the police
commissioner shouldn't have jump into conclusions like that. He has
already adjudged Adams guilty at his own police court at his command.
The rule of law is not like that.
"The job of the police is limited to arrest of suspect and Okiro should
leave the job of crime prosecution to lawyers and the administration of
Justice system."
"Adaramoye further warned the police not to torture Adams in the course
of the interrogation. He observed that when known Adams was paraded, his
head was swollen, an evidence of torture.
"This is against all laws both locally and internationally. The police
should have a better psychological means of getting information from
suspects rather than resort to the brutish act of torture," he further
said.
For Oodua Liberation Movement (OLM), the safety of Adams is their major
concern.
Its National Coordinator, Mr. Arikewuyo Obadofin, said: "It is a source
of concern because we know how the authorities handled similar cases in
the past. For example, the case of Chief M.K.O. Abiola and other
political prisoners.
"Our position therefore is that he (Adams) should be arraigned
immediately in compliance with the tenets of democracy and the rule of
law. We take exception to trump-up charges. Whatever is claimed to be
his offence, must be proved to the whole world. Otherwise, it will
amount to witch hunting.
"Everybody knows Adams stand against crime and, his commitment to the
emancipation of the Yoruba nation in Nigeria politics," he concluded.
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