Mr. Femi Falana
Deportation
of dissidents : In 1885 the British colonial regime deported King Jaja
of Opobo to a remote island in West Indies where he died in 1889. His
offence was that he had challenged the imperialist control of the
coastal trade. In 1941, Comrade Michael Imoudu, President of the
Nigerian Union of Railwaymen, was deported from Lagos and banished to
his hometown, Auchi in the Benin Province as he was considered “a
potential threat to public safety” . He only returned to Lagos in 1945
following the revocation of Sections 57-63 of the General Defence
Regulation, 1941 under which he had been detained. There were other
nationalist agitators and labour leaders who were deported and banished
to prevent them from taking part in the struggle against colonialism.
The barbaric practice of deporting Nigerians was resuscitated by the
defunct military dictatorship. In particular, the reactionary regimes of
Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha resorted to the crude
harassment of political opponents by deportation.
In 1995, the chairman of the Campaign
for Democracy, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti, alerted the world that the secret
trial of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and others by a Special Military
Tribunal had been concluded and that the convicts were being prepared
for execution. For leaking such information to the media the human
rights leader was tried in Lagos, jailed for life and deported to
Katsina Prison. The CD vice-chairman, Shehu Sani, was arrested in
Kaduna, jailed for life in Lagos and banished to Kirikiri Maximum Prison
in Apapa. Four journalists viz: Chris Anyanwu, Kunle Ajibade, Charles
Mbah and Charles Obi, who were convicted for being accessories after the
fact of treason i.e. the 1995 phantom coup, were deported from Lagos
and kept in separate prisons in the northern states.
In 1996, Fawehinmi was once again
deported from Lagos and detained at the Bauchi prison while Femi
Aborishade and I were deported from Lagos and held at the Gumel and
Mawadashi prisons (in Jigawa State) respectively. Comrade Frank Kokori
who was arrested in Lagos was banished to Bama prisons in Borno State
for four years. General Obasanjo who was convicted in Lagos was
deported to Yola prison. His ex-deputy, General Shehu Yar’Adua was
deported from Kaduna, convicted in Lagos and held at various times in
Kirikiri, Port Harcourt and Abakaliki prisons.
Like King Jaja both Abiola and Yar’Adua
died in suspicious circumstances while they were in custody. But as
deportation of colonial subjects could not be justified even under
colonial rule it was carried out pursuant to special regulations. In the
same vein, the military dictators engaged in deportation of citizens
under the preventive detention decrees and the Prison Act.
It is common knowledge that the
beautification project of the Babatunde Fashola administration has led
to the deportation of hundreds of the flotsam and jetsam from Lagos
State to their states of origin. The elite and the media have been
celebrating the ban on “Okada” from the major roads and the removal of
traders and area boys from the streets. For understandable
reasons, most of the hundreds of thousands of poor people who have been
displaced and dislodged in the operation “Keep Lagos clean” are of the
Yoruba extraction.
In fact, on April 9, 2009, when the
Lagos State Government deported 129 beggars of Oyo State origin and
dumped them at Molete in Ibadan, the Governor Adebayo Alao Akala
administration alleged that the action was aimed at sabotaging his
government. Just last week, some beggars of Osun State origin were also
deported by the Lagos State Government and dumped at Osogbo.
It is sad to note that most Nigerians
never took cognisance of the war being waged by state government against
the poor and disadvantaged citizens in the urban renewal policy until
the much-publicised case of the 14 “beggars” of Anambra State origin who
were deported in Lagos and dumped in Onitsha about three weeks ago. In
fact, it was the condemnation of the deportation by the Governor of
Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, that drew the attention of the elite to
the unfortunate development. However, in defence of its action, the
Lagos State Government stated that it entered into an agreement with the
Anambra State Government through its liaison office in Lagos on the
controversial deportation.
Although the Anambra State Government
has not denied the allegation that it was privy to the deportation of
the beggars, it is on record that in December 2011, the Obi
administration had deported 29 beggars to their states of origin i.e.
Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi states. Apart from such official hypocrisy, the Obi
administration did not deem it fit to protest when the Abia State
Government purged its civil service of “non-indigenes” in 2012. Many of
the victims of the unjust policy who hail from Anambra were left in the
lurch.
In June 2011, the Federal Capital
Territory administration deported 129 beggars to their respective states
of origin. In May 2013, hundreds of beggars were also removed from the
streets and expelled from Abuja. Of course, it is common knowledge that
the FCT authorities have continued to demolish residential houses
without following due process in order to “restore the Abuja Masterplan”
which was distorted through corruption and abuse of office. The
majority of the victims of such illegal demolitions who are poor have
been dislocated and forced out of the FCT.
Last week, the Rivers State Government
removed 113 Nigerians from the streets of Port Harcourt and deported
them to their states of origin. The Akwa Ibom State Government has just
contacted its Lagos counterpart of the planned deportation of two “mad”
Lagosians roaming the streets of Uyo. Many other state governments are
busy deporting beggars, mad men and other destitute persons in the
on-going beautification of state capitals. Those who are defending the
Igbo beggars out of sheer ethnic irredentism should be advised to
examine the socio-economic implications of the anti-people’s
urbanisation policy being implemented by the federal and state
governments in the overall interests of the masses.
Since deportation has been resuscitated
under the current political dispensation it has become pertinent to
examine the legal implications of the forceful deportation of a group of
citizens on account of their impecunious status. Although street
trading and begging have been banned in some states it is submitted,
without any fear of contradiction, that there is no existing law in
Nigeria which has empowered the federal and state governments to deport
any group of Nigerian citizens to their states of origin.
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