AN OPEN LETTER TO DISTINGUISHED DR. BEN URUCHI ODOH
HONOURABLE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND COMMISSIONER FOR JUSTICE, EBONYI STATE.
Learned Honourable Attorney General,
I have held you in very high esteem from the first day I encountered your work in Alternative Dispute Resolution and your commitment to justice. When news of your appointment as Attorney General reached me, I rejoiced. I believed that Ebonyi State had placed the temple of justice in the hands of a righteous man. Scripture says, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.
Today, however, we are confronted with a reality that has shaken that confidence.
I write not just as a son of Amasiri but as a legal practitioner who swore to defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That oath does not permit silence in the face of constitutional vandalism.
Under your watch as the Chief Law Officer of Ebonyi State, fundamental rights have been suspended in Amasiri as though the Constitution does not extend to our people. Sections 33, 34, 35, 36, 41 and 43 of the Constitution have been rendered practically inoperative in the lives of my people.
The Supreme Court in Ransome-Kuti v. A.G. Federation affirmed that fundamental rights stand above executive convenience. In Fawehinmi v. Abacha, the Court made it clear that no government has the licence to trample on them. Yet that is precisely what has occurred.
An entire clan has been placed under siege. Not suspects. Not accused persons. An entire population. That is not law enforcement. That is collective punishment, and collective punishment has no place in Nigerian jurisprudence.
Traditional rulers have been arrested. A development centre created by law has been dissolved overnight. Schools have been shut. Economic life has been paralysed. Movement has been prohibited. Citizens have been beaten, detained and displaced. Young men have fled into forests. Hunger has become a weapon. These are not security measures. They are civil repression.
There is a saying that a dog is given a bad name in order to hang it. That is the script that has been written for Amasiri. It looks so scripted, Sir. Amasiri has maintained through several Channels and Platforms that we are collectively innocent of all Accusations. There’s no way you punish an entire Citizenry for an Alleged offence of a Few.
Your Principal insists that severed heads must be produced before the siege is lifted. Over four hundred soldiers were deployed into a small community. Homes were searched. Shops were broken. Rice mills destroyed. Cemeteries desecrated in search of alleged shallow graves. Two weeks later, the security agencies have not produced these heads.
Who exactly is expected to produce them?
The traditional rulers in detention?
The dissolved leadership structure?
The young men hiding for safety?
The women who do not understand the allegation?
Or the children who have been locked out of school and daily life?
Criminal responsibility in Nigerian law is personal. The proper procedure is settled
- Investigate.
- Arrest.
- Prosecute
Section 36 guarantees fair hearing even to the most reviled suspect. What is happening in Amasiri is punishment without accusation, detention, without charge and suffering without trial.
The tragic events at Okporojo, which all right thinking persons condemn, represent a failure of state security. They do not constitute a legal basis for the annihilation of a community. The doctrine of vicarious criminal liability does not apply to entire populations.
As Attorney General, you are not a political spectator. You are the constitutional gatekeeper. In A.G. Abia v. A.G. Federation, the Supreme Court underscored your role as defender of legality. Your silence in the face of sweeping executive overreach is not neutrality. It is acquiescence.
You were present at the security meetings that gave a Kangaroo Governmental Assent to these measures. Your office sponsored the legal instrument that erased Amasiri Development Centre in less than twenty four hours. A law that took months to create was destroyed in a day. That is not governance. That is legislative ambush. Governance is meant to be carried out in accordance to Law. Anything contrary to that should threatened impeachment proceedings against whoever violated it.
History will not record that you were unaware. It will record that you were there when the gravest Unprecedented Human Rights Abuse was carried out by the Government of Ebonyi State against the Indigenes of Ebonyi State.
This is not an ethnic argument. Amasiri, Edda and Afikpo are one people. Justice is indivisible. Today it is Amasiri. Tomorrow it can be anywhere.
Advise your Principal to restore constitutional order. Lift the siege. Reopen the schools. Allow people to farm and trade. Release detainees without charge or arraign them before a competent court. Set up an independent judicial panel. Let suspects be investigated and prosecuted according to law.
The youths of Amasiri have reportedly come into possession of a memo allegedly emanating from the Governor’s office threatening grave consequences for anyone who publishes views critical of the ongoing actions.
Learned Honourable Attorney General, how many more rights must be trampled upon before you remind your Principal that Section 39 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and of the press. In Arthur Nwankwo v. The State, the Court of Appeal affirmed that criticism of government is a fundamental democratic right. In Director SSS v. Olisa Agbakoba, the Supreme Court reinforced the centrality of civil liberties in a constitutional order.
Dissent is not a crime. Criticism of government is not treason. If the Government believes it has been defamed, the law provides a remedy through the courts.
What is impermissible is the intimidation of citizens for speaking about the destruction of their homes and livelihoods.
We are told that names of Amasiri sons and daughters who have spoken out are being compiled. Let it be clearly stated for the record.
My name is XAVIER CHINAECHEREM MKPACHI-OKO.
I am from Amasiri.
No threat, no intimidation and no abuse of state power will silence my lawful exercise of constitutional rights.
Posterity is not sentimental. It records who spoke, who acted and who kept quiet.
I still address you as a learned man and a mentor in the profession who I hold of very high esteem, but mentorship carries the burden of example. This is the moment to stand on the side of the Constitution.
Amasiri will live
Edda will live
Afikpo will live
Ebonyi State will live.
May history not remember that when the Constitution was under assault, the Chief Law Officer chose silence. May Posterity Judge the AG to be a Just Man.
XAVIER CHINAECHEREM MKPACHI-OKO, ESQ.
Concerned Amasiri Son and Legal Practitioner