The Justice Center

Attorneys & Counselors-at-law

220 W. Congress, Ste. 200,

Detroit, Michigan 48226

Tel: (313) 961-1000, (313) 967-9666

Fax: (313) 961-3110

E-mail: lawyers4justice@yahoo.com

December 20, 2005OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT

President, Federal Republic of Nigeria

State House,

Abuja, Nigeria

Your Excellency:

In the Matter of Abiola et al v. Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar: Stop Perverting The Course of Justice

I am an attorney in the above law office and one of the firms of attorneys representing Chief Anthony Enahoro, Dr. Arthur Nwankwo and Ms Hafsat Abiola (hereinafter referred to as “the Plaintiffs”) in the human rights violations case against the former military dictator, Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar (Rtd), (Docket Number 02 C 6093) currently pending before the Honorable Judge Matthew F. Kennelly of United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Chicago. The Plaintiffs brought the case under the Alien Torts Claims Act (ATCA) and the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of United States.

 Since the commencement of this suit, you have left no one in doubt regarding your unalloyed support for General Abdusalami Abubakar, hence you have thrown your weight behind the former dictator by making sure that the Nation’s Ministry of Justice and Ministry of External Affairs participate very actively in supporting General Abubakar’s legal defense. You have also spent and continue to spend several millions of the taxpayers’ money to pay for Abubakar’s legal defense fees. You had sent at least, not less than two powerful delegations comprising of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to the United States to persuade the U.S Government to assist Abubakar in bringing this case to an end.

On December 12, 2005 at the status hearing of the case in Chicago, Mr. Ugwonye informed the Court in his report that you will not release Abubakar to attend his trial in the U.S. It was at this point that the trial Judge asked Mr. Ugwonye whether he was representing Gen. Abubakar or the Nigerian Government. In response, Mr. Ugwonye notified the Court that the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo would soon prepare an affidavit and a letter given him a direct instruction to represent your Government in the case. Suffice it to say, that you are an interested party in this case even though your motives are still very unclear.

 Mr. President, if you could send your Attorney – General, Chief Bayo Ojo with tax payers money to London, UK, to swear to an ordinary affidavit in which you requested the British Court not to release the former Governor of Balyelsa State, Chief D.S.P Alamieyesigha on bail while facing the money laundering charges against him and you are also prepared to extradite him to London, even without a request for his extradition by UK, will it not amount to double standard to waste public funds on defending Abubakar and preventing the General from facing the human rights violation case against him in the U.S ? 

 All of these acts, as worrisome as they are, did not bother the Plaintiffs much. And even though, you are not supposed to spend public funds to finance a private action, the appropriateness of your action should be left to Nigerians to judge particularly since you are parading yourself as an advocate of probity and public accountability.

However this office is forced to write you and caution you against your current efforts to pervert justice and tinker with the Plaintiffs’ rights in this case. General Abubakar’s lawyer, Mr. Emeka Ugwonye has also graciously revealed to one of our attorneys in the office that as a way to ease General Abubakar out of the lawsuit and disgrace Plaintiffs’ attorneys, you have initiated a plan to personally contact the plaintiffs with a view to persuading them to drop the case against General Abubakar and denounce their attorneys.

Mr. Ugwonye further stated that you had contacted Chief Anthony Enahoro who according to Ugwonye, told you that he was forced into the case by Mr. Kayode Oladele. Armed with this information from you, Mr. Ugwonye, in his latest status report to the presiding Judge informed the court that “right from inception, the defendant was convinced that this case was politically motivated and that the American court system was being abusively interjected into a political game plan in Nigeria." Mr. Ugwonye further stated that based on information available to his client, General Abubakar, “it was clear that the actual plaintiffs might have been manipulated by Mr. Oladele into involvement in this case." Mr. Ugwonye specifically accused Mr. Oladele of forging Chief Enahoro’s signature on Court documents and pleadings papers. Fortunately, the Plaintiffs in the Guardian Cover story of Sunday December 18, 2005 have refuted these wild allegations.

Mr. President, since you have portrayed yourself as an interested party in this case, you can no longer be seen to be impartial; hence, we urge you or your agents to cease and desist from having ex-parte communications with our clients namely, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Dr Arthur Nwankwo and Ms Hafsat Abiola. Ex parte communication is barred in judicial process even if you act with a laudable motive. Already by your actions as revealed by Mr. Ugwonye, you have engaged in acts aimed at distorting justice by showing partiality to the Plaintiffs and favoritism to Gen. Abubakar. This letter is therefore to protect the Plaintiffs from undue government interference and any gratuitous pressure from your office. The Plaintiffs are looking forward to have their day in Court and we are sure that they would not complain if the jury denies their claims against General Abubakar. 

Sincerely,

sgd

 Akinwole Ogunlola, Esq.

Robot  # 1 | 20.12.2005 23:46

...Read the full article.

Unregistered  # 2 | 21.12.2005 01:18

I cannot imagine that our money is meant to be used for defending General Abubakar? From what the writer has written it looks as if the Attorney-General will be in the defense team? Now AG Bayo Ojo has become international AG? Mr. President, if what is written here is true, then you are about to bite the hand which fed you while in jail. The NADECO people fought for democracy and your freedom, and it is looking as if you are about to slsp them in the face? Why should you always poke yourself into legalistic issues? Why dont you allow the courts (plaintiff, defendants and the jury/judge) have a field day? You are biting more than you can chew. Remember, you will leave Aso Rock one day, and the wheel of justice will be over you. Take care.

John  # 3 | 21.12.2005 06:25

So this has been going on behind our back and OBJ is accusing other people of diverting public funds! Did the US government pay Clinton's legal fees in Monica's case? I hope the Ribadu is readeing this expose too. The president is fishing his poltical enemies out for persecution. Just yesterday Ayu resigned but the president's spokesman said that he was removed, Atiku is being treated like a lepper and there are several others who are being selectively persecuted. Yet, he has the effontry to be spending our resources to defend Abubakar. Surely, Nigerians must demand an explanantion from OBJ.

Concerned citizen  # 4 | 21.12.2005 06:39

2007: SSS probes source of fund for Atiku’s campaign Francis Falola, Minna THE State Security Service has interrogated of leaders of Turaki Vanguard, a political organisation committed to the actualisation of the presidential ambition of Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. advertisement Our correspondent gathered that the interrogation was conducted in a bid to unravel the source of funding for Abubakar’s presidential ambition. The National Coordinator of Turaki Vanguard, Alhaji Nasir Gala, had on Friday appeared at the SSS National headquarters, Abuja, where he was interrogated on the source of finance for the organisation. Other leaders of the vanguard– National Director on Mobilisation, Mr. Jonathan Vatsa; a National Officer, Hajia Fati Abubakar, and one of the zonal coordinators, Alhaji Isa Lakpene– were expected to appear in Abuja for interrogation on Monday. Those being probed, it was learnt, were recently given a brand new KIA car each for use in mobilising support for Abubakar. The probing of the leaders of Turaki Vanguard, it would be recalled, followed the arrest and subsequent interrogation of the ADC to Abubakar, Mr. Abdul Yari. Yari is accused of being the conduit pipe for channeling funds into the political organisation. One of those quizzed, Vatsa, in an interview with our correspondent on Sunday night, said he was invited by the Niger State Director of the SSS, who told him that he was being wanted at the SSS national headquarters in Abuja. According to him, “Two men from the State Security Service came to my house to invite me on the order of the state director. “When I appeared before the director, I was impressed by his friendly disposition. He told me that I was needed at the service national headquarters in Abuja the following day and did not disclose the reason for my being invited.” Vatsa argued that Yari was not in anyway connected with the funding of the political movement. He described the source of fund for the organisation as being through donations from members, describing most members of the movement as professionals. Vatsa, claimed the SSS gave him two forms to fill, with om The second form, he claimed, was for him to make a statement to indict the ADC to Atiku as the financier of the Turaki Vanguard, as has been the one who gave the several vehicles issued out to the loyalists of the Vice-President for the 2007 campaigns. “I made them realise that attempts to accuse the ADC as the financier of the movement is a way of giving a dog a bad name in order to hand it and that since what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gender, that this kind of probe should be extended to Obasanjo’s son in London in unravelling where he got the money to build his magnificent building outside the shores of Nigeria as reported by the dailies,” he stated. The PUNCH, Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Uche  # 5 | 21.12.2005 08:41

This is interesting. If you point one finger at a person, the remaining four are pointing at you. So, Obasanjo's son has a mansion in London and he is using our money to help defend his co-general and the man that handed over power to him as a pay back? I understand another son has a mansion in New York which has been fully paid . How many times has he interrogated poeple that are calling for his third term bid? I am sure more revelations would soon emerge. OBJ surely has some explaining to do, otherwise, the wgole idea of anticorruption saga is a ruse to persecute political opponents.

Adeo  # 6 | 21.12.2005 11:28

I am not surprised. Obasanjo has been in the political game too long to be innocent. They are all birds of the feather. I do enjoy it though when they turn on one another. Sharing power is like sharing loot, even if Obasanjo is not as corrupt. At some point the one that gets or thinks he did not get enough will spill to the rest of us.

Unregistered  # 7 | 21.12.2005 12:07

Concerned Citizen/ILN, shut up! this is about your funder, OBJoke

Unregistered  # 8 | 21.12.2005 12:10

Abubakar, was caught in this web, at a ceremony in chicago where he was served summons. while shamelessly establishing a multimillion dollar scholarship foundation at the Chicago State Universit. This was reprehensible, given his regime had devastated Nigeria's education system. Talking of bringing coal to newcastle! Obviously it was stolen tax payers money that he used to establish this foundation, and now Obasanjo is funelling more tax payers money to finance his defense? Let me guess, Obasanjo must be thinking..if Abubakar goes down....who might be next? hmmm.... Ted

Unregistered  # 9 | 21.12.2005 15:13

For God's sake! All someone has to do on this site is write something negative about Obasanjo and everyone will launch into silly lamentation. The writer here is only working for his own money and using this forum to draw attention to his clients's case by using OBJ. This is getting too childish!! Fred.

Baba Elewa  # 10 | 21.12.2005 15:35

Fred, I guess it comes with the territory for OBJ. As you rightly stated, the writer of the article is trying to earn his money and looking for ways to weaken his opposition in court using all means possible. What does the lawyer expect? Abubakar is charged for acts that he committed in his official capacity as Head of state, acts that were probably sanctioned by the Supreme Military Council or whatever they called themselves during Abubakar regime. I am not a lawyer by any stretch of the imagination, however I think it is appropriate that if a former head of state is challenged in a foreign country for acts that he committed as head of state, it becomes important for the current Government to defend the former Head of state to the maximum extent possible. I am 99.99% sure that if tomorrow George W. Bush is challenged in a foreign court for waging an illegal war in Iraq, I am 99.99% sure that any US Government (even if led by the most avid critic of Bush) will use everything at her disposal to quash such a case. I would think this is very elementary. It is a completely different thing if Abubakar or anyone else was charged for acts committed in their private capacities...for example, caught in laundering state money to private accounts as in DSP's case. Even in that case, any responsible government will not allow such custodian of national secrets (ex-Head of state) to risk being in a foreign jail. I know of no self-respecting country that will do that. Rather, it will be preferred that such a person be tried and jailed if necessary on home ground. My two kobos worth. Peace, Baba Elewa

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