On 4 December, the Federal Government of Nigeria foreclosed the prospect of releasing the official report of the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission headed by Justice Chukwudifu Oputa. Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Akinlolu Olujimi said the government has chosen to comply with the judgment of the Supreme Court, which annulled the probe panel on the ground of unconstitutionality. (09-DEC-04)

This article was written by Emmanuel Onwubiko for the Nigerian daily the Guardian. It was originally published on 5 December and has been re-edited for publication here.  

The Human Rights Violations Commission, popularly called the Oputa Panel, in deference to Justice Oputa, a former Supreme Court Judge, was set up during the first democratic tenure of the current administration. Specifically, the panel was empowered under the Tribunal of Inquiry Act, Cap 44, Laws of the Federation of Nigerian, 1990 to look into allegations of human rights abuses under past regimes in the country and recommend ways to avert a recurrence in future.

Former Head of State cleared of responsibility for killing
But General Ibrahim Babangida, who ruled the country between August 27, 1985 to August 1993, went to court to challenge a summons served on him to appear before the probe panel. This was in connection with a petition filed by Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) on behalf of the late journalist, Mr Dele Giwa, who was killed by a parcel bomb on October 19, 1986, during the military regime of Gen. Babangida. Babangida was victorious at both the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, and at the Supreme Court. The Appeal Court had declared as illegal, sections 5, 10, 11(1)(b), (4) and 12 of the enabling law which was derived from Cap 47 of the Tribunal of Inquiry Act 1966. The Court, to which a Federal High Court, Lagos had referred the clarification, held that the sections contravened sections 35 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution. The Supreme Court held that: “The 1999 Constitution made no provision for Tribunals of Inquiry unlike the 1963 Constitution in item 39 of the Executive List and item 25 of the Concurrent List.”

Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa
From January last year, when the Supreme Court demolished the statutory structure under which the defunct Justice Oputa-led Rights Violations probe panel stood, Nigerians have continued to clamour for the release of the recommendations and report of the probe. Reverend Father Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Vicar General of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kaduna and a leading member of the Oputa Panel, had last month, at the anniversary of the killing of the Ogoni rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, called for the release of the official report of the panel. But the Minister of Justice, Chief Olujimi has asked Nigerians to forget the Oputa Panel report because the annulment by the Supreme Court means that releasing the report would not make any meaning “because it cannot be enforced.”

-What white paper. It?s been nullified
His words, when asked why government had not published the white paper on the Oputa findings: “Which white paper? If the Supreme Court said you have no power to set up this committee and vest it with jurisdiction throughout the whole country, so what is white paper? “That is, in effect, nullified. Everything that the panel did has been nullified. What white paper are you now asking for? I mean, the order struck out the foundation of that panel. It was like uprooting it entirely.”On why the government wasted massive public funds on the Oputa Panel, which has now been nullified, the nation?s chief law officer said the Oputa panel played a significant role.

The military?s human rights abuses remain unexposed
According to him: “Who did not welcome that initiative of setting up the Oputa Panel? Who did not support it? Who did not support that initiative to expose all human rights abuses? If I asked you whether it was justifiable to spend taxpayers? money in prosecuting the task of the Oputa Panel, you will wholeheartedly support it. “Because the military had a bad human rights record and that was the very first attempt and indeed the only one in the history of this country to expose the kind of abuses that occurred during the military regimes.” He continued: “Nobody at that time could condemn government for setting up that panel and funding it to carry out the exercise. If somebody now went to court to challenge the exercise and the Supreme Court gave an order in favour of the appellant, do you now morally and properly accuse government of not wanting to release the report?”