Buhari Orders Wthdrawal Of Licenced Guns, Aims At Curtailing IPBOB Self Determination - Chief Mike Ozekhhome

Abuja - Constitutional lawyer and human rights activist Chief Mike Ozekhome said that President Buhari's executive order on withdrawal of licences guns of Nigerians is aimed at curtailing the self determination aspiration of IPOB even thou he noted that it exposes innocent Nigerians to the murderous activities of herdsmen, kidnappers and Boko Haram terrorists..


In his statement titled  "President Mohammed Buhari Executive Order Withdrawing Gun Licences: The Legal and Social Consequences' The senior advocate of Nigeria said "Ordinarily one would have applauded President Mohammed for signing an executive order banning possession of guns, having regard to the unbridled proliferation and possession of small and medium scale politically motivated and banditorily-induced arms currently in circulation. He continued

"However, Buhari's sectionalistic perception of governance from the opaque prism of ethnicity and religious nuances do not give one such euphoric comfort of nationalistically induced decisions.

"It seems to me a panicky measure meant to  forestall the threats by Niger Delta militants to declare their Republic by 1st June and also the now historic struggle by IPOB for self determination.

"What ever be his reasons, the President and his handlers appeared to have lost the larger picture of the citizens' rights to life and self defense.

"Section 33 of  the 1999 Constitution provides for right to life.

"Section 258 of Criminal Code which operates in the Southern Part of Nigeria and section 59-60 of the panel Code that operates in the North, all guarantee the right to self defense and the defense of one's property.

"What the executive order has unwittingly  done is to leave honest and innocent Nigerians most vulnerable to the unrestrained murderous and blood -letting activities of marauders, herdsmen, Terrorists, armed robbers and kidnappers.

"People may now decide to possess their arms illegally and under cover as guerrilla tactics, since even the legitimate licence cannot grantee same, after thorough screening by law enforcement agencies.

"After all, self preservation is the first law of nature.

" The Executive  order is also gravely flawed in the sense that those known and notorious to illegally possess these same arms, like herdsmen, were not mention at all.

" There now appears to be two sets of laws for Nigerians.

"Recall that the same government had incredibly set up social radio network station for this over pampered set of 'superior Nigerians'.

"No thought was given to the the equally illiterate Nigerians of these communities whose wives are daily raped in their homes, children murdered in cold blood, farmlands invaded, crops eaten and such farms then set ablaze.

"I always wonders who advises Mr. President. But Harry Truman once declared," Buck stops here.