Question to CJN, NJC: Why the silence over Evans’ case? – AN EDITORIAL
It is in the same vein The DEFENDER is calling on the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and National Judicial Council (NJC) to look into why Evans’ case and other serious cases against those that have caused international embarrassments to this nation are being delayed. It is also calling that not only should the CJN and NJC look into the cause of delay but also, they should do something about those dragged cases before they are swept under the carpet and suspected criminals and other agents of corruption get released into the society to continue their evils and corrupt practices against this great nation.
As 2017 rode to the end, Nigerians and members of global community were treated to an entertainment, entitled, “Evans, billionaire kidnapper, others arrested”.
It was entertaining because it was news that amused the hearts and souls of particularly sane and patriotic Nigerians who wanted good for themselves and others as a departure from all the negative news of kidnappers kill, gun men storm and all of that they were used to all along.
Surprisingly it was also read how some lawyers made efforts to rescue Evans from the long hands of the law. That went along with a social media impression that Evans being a man of God who read Bible and led fellowship daily should be seen as victim of satanic test and so be let off the hooks.
That went on even as a section of the media ran several anonymous stories trying to blackmail the Nigerian Police as they claimed Evans had either escaped or had been moved to unknown destination thereby spreading apprehension to the nerves of many, including those that had fallen victim of him and who had celebrated his arrest. All in an effort to just cause confusion so the Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris would either be tired or be blackmailed out of seat so another person as IGP could now arrange a way out for Evans.
But why are Nigerians like this? Why do Nigerian people, especially those supposedly educated, find their souls in friendship with celebration of indecency, that is, corruption and criminality? What they hinge their agitations in support of those criminals upon is mostly to say they are in crime because of poverty. Evans’ case put them to shame over such claim as the man just set out to get quick rich. Yet, even poverty is not excuse to go into crime for anybody that comes from good home and no man must not be conscious of his family name. No home has been researched to be so poor that crime becomes their trade. No. They can only be heard to be in petty trade which is not enough to put them side-by-side with even middle class and many of such people abound in history of the world.
But where even educated professionals of Nigeria, who should be on the vanguard of forming coalition against indecency and public peace disturbances, are themselves in the act of staging advocacy for corrupt and criminal people on flimsy excuse of poverty. The simple message that notion can pass to discerning minds is that many Nigerians have signed an MoU with backwardness and misfortune of the morals. Yet, these are the same people who, because they cannot access good life due to consequences of their own attitude, are holding President Muhammadu Buhari responsible for their self-imposed hardship. Yet it is Buhari that is for the first time ever waging tangible war against all these factors that have put them in the difficult situation for years. With their failure to support the President’s effort for once, how do they expect to get better? Not even any person they think should take over from him can save them from themselves unless they just rethink seriously and begin to mend their ways now, so as to enable the first known sincere and non-corrupt government Nigeria has had since after the First Republic help them fix the problems.
It is in the same vein The DEFENDER is calling on the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and National Judicial Council (NJC) to look into why Evans’ case and other serious cases against those that have caused international embarrassments to this nation are being delayed. It is also calling that not only should the CJN and NJC look into the cause of delay but also, they should do something about those dragged cases before they are swept under the carpet and suspected criminals and other agents of corruption get released into the society to continue their evils and corrupt practices against this great nation.
