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Tag: Sonnie Ekwowusi

  • Illegal Bank Charges and the Rule of Law, By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Illegal Bank Charges and the Rule of Law, By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    When last did you check the bank charges slammed on you by your bank to ascertain whether they are appropriate charges or not? If you have not formed the habit of assessing your bank charges better start off today otherwise your bank will be slowly and steadily stealing your money in the name of bank charges without your knowledge. Nigeria is challenged from within on all front-political democracy, security of lives and property, economy, cultural identity, humanitarianism, moral renaissance and so forth. To many discontented Nigerians, the faiths which had been the mainstay of a way of life in Nigeria for generations now appear too static and removed from pressing everyday problems. We have lost faith in practically everything. Consequently our salvation in Nigeria clearly lies in our hands. You have to provide your own electricity supply, security of life and property, drinkable water, housing, transportation, primary health care and so forth. You also have to monitor and protect your bank account otherwise your bank will be stealing your money under the guise of charging you stamp duty charge, maintenance charge, upgrading charge, value-added tax, service charge, alert charge, charge on transfer (COT), new cheque booklet charge, overdraft charge, returned cheque charge and other unfounded bogus charges.

    Last week the Federal High Court, Asaba in Rupert Irikefe V Central Bank of Nigeria., Zenith Bank Plc and the Attorney-General of the Federation held that that there is no express or implied duty in the Stamp Duties Act or any other law in Nigeria authorizing Zenith Bank Plc and other commercial banks in Nigeria to charge, impose and deduct N50 as stamp duty on any electronic transfer of monies from N1, 000 upwards. Therefore the court held that the imposition, deduction of N50 as stamp duty from the account of Rupert Irikefe by Zenith Bank Plc is unlawful and illegal. The court also ordered Zenith Bank to refund to Rupert Irikefe the total cumulative sum of money which it had illegally, unlawfully and wrongly deducted from Rupert Irikefe’s account as stamp duty. In handing down the aforesaid judgment, the court relied heavily on the valid and subsisting 2016 Court of Appeal decision in Standard Chartered Bank Limited V Kasmal International Services and 2017 Retail Supermarkets of Nigeria Limited V Citibank Nigeria Limited and the Central Banks of Nigeria.

    The import of the aforesaid judgment is that commercial banks in Nigeria are barred from charging their customers stamp duty and other illegal charges. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) must take note of this. My bank is Access bank. Permit me to reiterate once again an encounter with Access bank which had instilled in me a certain revulsion against anything called bank in Nigeria. It was a bright Monday morning. I needed to rush to the bank and make a quick withdrawal. Before going to the bank, I checked my statement of account and there was money in my account. But upon getting to the bank and presenting my cheque at the counter, the smiling teller first grabbed it, held it out in the light for proper scrutiny, tapped the keyboard momentarily with her right thumb and thereafter returned it with the most foolish answer a bank could give to its customer on a busy Monday morning. “Sorry, sir, are you expecting some money? Insufficient fund in your bank account. Please see the inquiry desk”. “What?” I retorted. “I said, sir, that you have insufficient fund in your account”, she repeated. “Since when?”. My current bank statement of account tells me I have some money in my bank account”, I thundered. “Yes sir, that is why I said you should see the desk officer, sir”. I angrily left the counter and confronted the desk officer with the cheque. She quickly snatched it from me, perused it carefully, took a quick glance of it on the screen and returned the cheque back to me. Thereafter the following hot argument ensued:

    “There is something wrong with your account sir?”

    “What is wrong with it?”

    “Sir, you failed to migrate that was why the bank charged you N10,000”

    “Migrate to where?”

    “You failed to migrate to the new non-chargeable account, sir”

    “What do you mean by that nonsense?”

    “Sir, as at last three months ago, we gave all customers deadline to exercise the option to migrate to the new non-chargeable current account and those customers who failed to migrate were charged N10,000”

    “You are not serious. Did you inform me before proceeding to remove N10,000 from my account?”

    “Sir, we informed all customers”

    “I said, did you inform me personally in writing or otherwise?. At the time of opening this account the bank never told me that it would at any time deduct N10,000 from the account. Besides, my current statement of account indicates that I have sufficient funds in my account”

    “Sir, we sent out letters informing all customers”

    “My friend, listen, you may not understand the meaning of personal contract. I said: did you inform me personally?”

    “We did, sir”

    “Okay, where is the proof?”

    “I am sorry, sir, we don’t have it”

    “Then you must be a thief. How can you steal N10,000 from a customer’s account against customer’s wish. Is that your money?”

    “No, sir”

    “So, why did you steal it?’

    “I am sorry, sir. Please speak to my manager”

    “I am not speaking to any manager. Just return my N10,000”

    “I am so sorry, sir”

    “Sorry for yourself. You must return my money. Look, I am giving this bank 48 hours to return the N10,000 failure for which it would suffer many undesirable consequences”.

    Anyway, to cut the long story short, I left the banking hall fuming and threatening in anger. The next day the bank manager came calling with a letter of apology that the bank was going to sort itself out and make amends within one week. So, we must continue to demand for our rights in this country. It is not only the streets urchins, local government touts, SARS police and political thugs who are extorting money from hapless citizens. The banks are also extorting money from us. It beats the imagination that commercial banks which ought to protect their customers’ funds are now turning round to steal their customers’ funds. This is Nigeria for you. No idle moment in Nigeria. From the moment you get up in the morning until you return to bed in the night you are constantly ruffled by one thing or the other. If the kidnapper is not laying siege to the highway to capture you and whisk you away to their hideout where you will be handcuffed and chained to the ground until you have paid the last ransom, a staff of your bank is sitting down in an air-conditioned hall and secretly pilfering the money in your account under the guise of bank charges. So, you must get your bank to render you justice. You must stand up for your right. Always arm yourself with a copy of the judgment of the court in Rupert Irikefe V Central Bank of Nigeria, Zenith Bank Plc and the Attorney-General of the Federation. And anytime your bank misbehaves and charges you stamp duty, you must not hesitate to bring out a copy of the judgment and show it to your bank as a warning to remove the charge. The rule of law must prevail over arbitrary and capricious exercise of power.

     

     

  • Police brutality and the rule of law, By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Police brutality and the rule of law, By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Somehow the refrain or the singsong, “Black lives Matter” has sunk into popular consciousness. It is now fashionable to appreciate and even discuss the sacredness and dignity of the lives of blacks in reminiscent of the barbaric murder of George Floyd. At the restart of the English Premier League all the 22 players on the soccer pitch were spotted, at least in the first week of the League, adorning jerseys with the bold inscription “Black lives matter” on their back in honour of the murdered George Floyd, and, I guess, as a demonstration of solidarity against racism and inequality.

    Unfortunately the police is undeterred. It is unconvinced that the lives of black men matter let alone be preserved. On or around 13th July 2020, another police officer was caught by camera kneeling on the neck of another Afro-American in the course of an arrest in Pennsylvania, U.SA. And just last week, the London Police Force suspended a London police officer pending an investigation after a footage emerged alleging that he knelt on the head and neck of a black suspect. The victim allegedly started screaming, “Get off me … get off my neck”. Back home in Nigeria last week, the embattled former acting Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Ms. Joy Nunieh would have either been brutalized or forcefully abducted by the police if not for the timely interception of Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. As early as 4.30 a.m. the battle-ready policemen had besieged Joy Nunieh’s residence in order to gain entrance into her residence. If Governor Wike had not swiftly arrived to the scene on time to chase away the policemen they would have accomplished their mission without any police warrant, charge and trial and conviction of Ms. Nunieh. Were Joy Nunieh an ordinary citizen without any contact with anybody in the corridors of power the policemen laying siege to her residence last week would have succeeded in illegally brutalizing or abducting her.

    So no lessons learnt from thevbarbaric murder of George Floyd? I think so. We are still at the mercy of the police both at home and abroad. You may be aware that the brutality and barbarity with which George Floyd was murdered are negligible compared to the gruesome police extra-judicial executions and police brutality in Nigeria. Extra-judicial executions and unlawful killings by the Nigeria Police are well documented by the Amnesty International. The Amnesty International has also documented reports on how innocent civilians in Nigerians are habitually being extorted, raped, tortured, and killed by police officers who are members of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). Permit me to briefly narrate one particular event of my professional life which you may find repugnant. Many years ago, I went to the Bode Police Station, Surulere, Lagos for something I cannot readily remember now. No sooner had I climbed up the back stair to meet a desk officer on duty than I saw a young man hanging upside down inside one of the dirty police cubicles. Blood was already gushing out and clotting on his nostrils. His face had turned red. He was gasping for breath, an indication that he was chocking to death. From my standpoint I spontaneously opened my mouth wide and began shouting to the hearing of everyone, “Release him! What did he do!”, “You want to kill someone”. Immediately the police officer standing in front of the victim quickly untied the victim and assisted him to stand in an upright position thus enabling him to breathe properly. The officer obeyed because he sensed I was poised to do physically battle with the police for hanging a suspect upside in order to suffocate him to death.

    The rule of law ought to reign supreme over arbitrary and capricious exercise of police power. The fundamental human rights of Nigerian citizens including the constitutional rights of criminal suspects, detainees and even criminal convicts are clearly stipulated in our 1999 Constitution. Every citizen is presumed innocent until proved guilty by a court of law of competent jurisdiction. Suspicion, no matter how probable or grounded, cannot secure a criminal conviction. A police officer or any law enforcement agents, in a bid to detect crime or apprehend an offender, may stop any citizen for a search or questioning, but on the condition that he first identifies himself as a police officer by stating his names, police station and the grounds for the questioning or the search. If the police man fails to sufficiently identify himself as aforesaid, then the citizen is not obliged to submit himself for a search or questioning. Any person who is arrested or detained shall have the right to remain silent or avoid answering any question from the police until after consultation with his legal practitioner of his own choice. Also any person who is arrested or detained shall be informed in writing within 24 hours in the language in which he understands of the facts and grounds for his arrests or detention. And where a person has been arrested either for the purpose of charging him to court or upon reasonable commission of an offence, such a person must be charged to court within a reasonable time not exceeding 48 hours failure for which he should granted bail pending appeal.

    This is the law in Nigeria. I have recently acquired a copy of Chief Frank Agbedo’s latest magnum opus with the alluring title, Casebook on Human Rights Litigation in Nigeria. The well-printed human rights book that runs up to 1090 pages focuses, inter alia, on cases on police brutality and ground-breaking innovations in human rights and public-interest litigations in Nigeria. With grandiloquent landmark legal cases and locus classicus illustrations, the learned author carefully marshaled out in his aforesaid book the new revolutionary trends in the enforcement of fundamental human rights and public interest litigations in Nigeria. For example, the author cited the case of Abacha V Fawehinmi and other cases establishing that the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights was adopted by Nigeria in 1983 and thenceforth had been incorporated into our domestic law. Consequently, the law of locus standi in Nigeria has changed. Citing the case of Mrs. Ganiat Amope Dilly V Inspector General of Police and others, the learned author established that Locus standi is now given a very expansive interpretation in contrast from the narrowed interpretation given to it by the Supreme Court in Abraham Adesanya v. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Gani Fawehinmi V Halilu Akilu. Today an applicant does not have to first establish that he had directly suffered any personal wrong before initiating an action under the Fundamental Human Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules 2009.

    The import of this revolutionary change is that aggrieved persons now have unimpeded access to court to seek remedy. Amid the reign of police brutality and executive lawlessness, the rule of law still remains the bulwark of our democracy. A democracy bereft of the rule of law is heading for anarchy. This is because regard for the rule of law is the bedrock upon which our society lays its claim to civilization.

  • Musings on Cultural Nihilism, By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Musings on Cultural Nihilism, By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Our generation is a confused generation. It is only content with addressing symptoms of the problems rather than the root causes of the problems. The State is driven to despair by ills of contemporary society. Our civilization is imperilled today principally due to the breakdown of the pillars of society. Our body politics is badly diseased. It is yet to be freed from the stranglehold of men of unruly passions and creatures of appetite. These are symptoms of a failed culture.

    The surest way to be ruined by democracy is to take for granted that it will yield its dividends in due time. But there is no in-built success mechanism in a democracy that always propels it to produce the desired dividends. All countries who have achieved success with their democracy have always worked hard to achieve the success. Therefore if Nigerians really and truly want to derive any benefits or dividends from their democracy they must work hard to make their democracy work in the first place. Therefore when huge billions of Naira is being sunk in renovating the National Assembly to the utter neglect of the critical health and educational sectors, you should not be seen to be raising an alarm. Why? Because they will never get it right. A withered tree cannot bear fruits.

    Besides our failed democracy, our shredded social and moral order poses a more intractable problem. First, the foundational pillar of society called the family has disintegrated resulting in disastrous social consequences such as corruption, stealing, juvenile crime, drug overdoses, alcohol-related diseases, youth rebelliousness, breakdown in extended family system, breakdown in economic solidarity, abandonment of the elderly, loss of our humanity, inability to differentiate right and wrong, lack of sense of value of human life and so forth. This is why someone or a group of persons can blindfold an innocent three-year old girl and machete her to death, an aftermath of the Southern Kaduna inter-communal clashes. Oftentimes we complain that Nigeria is not making progress. But a country like Nigeria which indulges in the barbaric pastime of spilling the blood of the innocent cannot make progress for their hands are still stained with innocent blood and no water on this earth can wash the blood off their hands. We are all witnessing at the moment the eruption of tumultuous violent riots across the world owing to the spilling of the blood of George Floyd. Were George Floyd a Nigerian murdered in Nigeria by the Nigeria Police the murder case would have been closed by now. The Nigerian public would not have protested. Yes. Nigerians are sheepishly submissive to their wicked leaders. Life is cheap in Nigeria. No premium is placed on human life in Nigeria.

    Worst still, in our attempt to copy the white man’s erotic culture we have abandoned the enviable Nigerian cultural heritage. In these times we can hardly differentiate sense from nonsense. We now live in a sexual State. By virtue of our 1999 Constitution, the State ought to promote public morality in Nigeria. But what is the Nigerian State promoting at the moment? It is promoting the so-called adolescent sexual and reproductive right, a euphemism for sexual gratification for teens. Our Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja, in conspiracy with foreign organizations and NGOs such as UNFPA, UNICEF, Guttmacher Institute, USAID, Bill & Melinda Gates foundation and others, is freely masquerading about and corrupting young Nigerians by telling them that “safe-sex” or the so-called “condom-safe-sex” is their right, and, that not even their parents can deprive them of this right to sexual gratification. In other to ensure that school pupils including highly-impressionable school kids in JSS1-111 are properly sexualized, some literature in English textbooks such used in teaching our school children such as Tears of a Bride- By Oyekunle Oyedeji; The Precious Child- By Queen O. Okweshine; Precious Little Darlings- By Oladosu Ayodeji containing explicit sexual, erotic and corruptive lewd materials are not being used in some public schools to teach our children in order to lure them into early sex, dating and pornography.

    There is no doubt that Nigeria will continue to gravitate from bad to worse until the country is re-ordered to a higher culture and a higher loyalty. Man, philosophically speaking, is not a mere matter: he is much more than that; a true understanding or correct view of the human person, his unique dignity and rights dictates that he is also endowed by God with spiritual and immortal soul. Therefore we have to cater for both the material and spiritual aspects of man. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the human society had been devastated by other forms of pandemic especially hopelessness, real or imaginary fears, colapse of marital relationships, drug abuse, kidnap, terrorism, racism, rape and sexual violence. Talking about rape, on April 27, 2020, an 18 year-old girl simply called Jennifer was raped and murdered in Kaduna. On May 27 2020, a 22-year old Miss Uwaila Vera Omozuwa was raped and murdered in a Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Benin City. On June 1, 2020 another female student, Miss Baraka Bello, was raped and killed in Akinyele community, Ibadan. Penultimate Saturday, a 21-year old student Grace Oshiagwu was raped and macheted to death inside a church mission building in the same Akinyele Local community, Ibadan.

    These gruesome rapist-killings have sparked off a roaring blaze of indignation and repugnance about the rape epidemic in Nigeria. A member of the House of Representatives, Abuja had moved a motion for the castration of rapists in Nigeria. But the House overruled him. I have always argued that if we are really determined to remedy the problems of our time, we need to uproot the roots of the problems rather than just fighting symptoms. Rape is not the problem: it is a symptom of deep-seated myriads of problems. Therefore exerting energies fighting symptoms is sheer waste of time. We need to tackle the problems from their roots in order to uproot them. If the Nigerian families are fast disintegrating, why are you surprised that families are now producing rapists? So, first things first. We must first of all fix the family. Another main cause of rape and sexual violence in Nigeria is the sexualisation of the Nigerian State. This must stop. Government cannot pretend to be fighting rape when in actual fact it is promoting sexual promiscuity otherwise called adolescent sexual and reproductive right among Nigerian teens which triggers off rape. If women bodies are portrayed as sexual tools for sexual gratification in TV ads, fashion, video games, and, if pornography is easily accessed everywhere, why are we surprised about the rape epidemic Nigeria? You see, a society reaps what it sows. If our school children are taught in open classroom that self-control is unnecessary and repressive, why are surprised that many of them end up graduating as rapists? The European Journal of Development Psychology states that findings reveal that reading and viewing pornographic materials trigger off sexual violence for both male and female adolescent.

    We need men with chests in Nigeria. We should learn to train the mind to appreciate and understand the truth about the human person. We should learn to cultivate the human soul. In the apt words of C. S Lewis in The Abolition of Man, “…You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more ‘drive’, or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or ‘creativity’. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful”.

  • Serves Us Right, By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo’s letter dated 23rd January 2018 axing President Muhammadu Buhari has further drummed home the point that President Buhari is an unfit and incompetent person to be the President of Nigeria. Come to think of it, there is nothing really new in the aforesaid Obasanjo’s letter.

    Buhari is an open book accessible by all. The paradox, however, is that Nigerians have refused to learn from painful history. When will we learn? Prior to the 2015 Presidential Elections Campaign, we were warned that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari was an unfit and improper person to be the President of Nigeria yet we ignored the warning. For instance, in his article entitled:” The Nigerian Nation Against General. Buhari”, Prof Wole Soyinka stated, inter alia, “Buhari – need one remind anyone – was one of the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel, with unconcealed disdain.

    Like Babangida and Abdusalami, he refused to put in appearance even though complaints that were tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the Nigerian citizenry.

    Prominent against these charges was an act that amounted to nothing less than judicial murder, the execution of a citizen under a retroactive decree. Does Decree 20 ring a bell? If not, then, perhaps the names of three youths – Lawal Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put it quite plainly, one of those three – Ogedengbe – was executed for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeit at the time it was committed.

    This was an unconscionable crime, carried out in defiance of the pleas and protests of nearly every sector of the Nigerian and international community – religious, civil rights, political, trade unions etc. Buhari and his sidekick and his partner-in-crime, Tunde Idiagbon persisted in this inhuman act for one reason and one reason only: to place Nigerians on notice that they were now under an iron, inflexible rule, under governance by fear.

    The execution of that youthful innocent – for so he was, since the punishment did not exist at the time of commission – was nothing short of premeditated murder, for which the perpetrators should normally stand trial upon their loss of immunity. Are we truly expected to forget this violation of our entitlement to security as provided under existing laws?”

    During the 2015 presidential campaigns, we were again warned that Buhari would not make a good President, yet we ignored the warning. At that time, newspaper advertorials with reverting titles such as “Buhari is a Soldier: Once a Soldier always a Soldier”, “Buhari is not qualified to rule Nigeria”, “Buhari cannot be trusted” were constantly inserted in our daily newspapers. In his response to the clamour for Buhari by some Nigerians in 2014, Prof Wole Soyinka said: “It is astonishing to find that the same former slaves, now free of their chains, should clamour to be ruled by one who not only turned their nation into a slave plantation, but forbade them any discussion of their condition.” Even a seemingly inconsequential and unpopular body such the Association of Witches and Wizards in Nigeria warned Buhari to perish his thought of ruling Nigeria because the witches and wizards in Nigeria would not allow him to rule Nigeria.

    Eminent journalist and editor of THISDAY, Saturday Newspaper, Shaka Momodu, penned down a series of articles bothering on the unfitness of Buhari to rule Nigeria yet the people did not listen to Momodu. Emir of Kano and former Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has been crying wolf about the foreign exchange corruption under the Buhari government yet we refused to listen to him. Hear the Emir: “we created billionaires from oil subsidies in the past.

    We are making the same mistake with Forex…as an Emir, I can seat in my garden and make phone calls to access $10 million at N197 per $ then sell it off at nothing less than N300. With just a phone call, I’m making a profit of over a billion Naira.

    That is what people are doing now…Any system that allows you sit in your garden and make a billion Naira without investing a kobo is a wrong system”. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has consistently shown his displeasure for President Buhari’s lack-lustre performance in government. Even President Buhari’s wife Aisha Buhari has since passed a vote of no confidence on her husband.

    So as I said earlier, Buhari is an open book accessible by all to read. The problem is that the ordinary Nigerians are enmeshed in deep followership crisis. The emergence of Buhari as a President of Nigeria, for me, bespeaks the political followership crisis in Nigeria.

    The ordinary Nigerians who are now complaining on WhatsApp, Face book, Twitter etc that corrupt politicians have ruined Nigeria are accomplices in the making of the corrupt politicians ruining Nigeria. For example, if the Nigerian electorate had voted wisely in the last presidential election, and thereafter followed up their votes to their ultimate destination Buhari would not have emerged.

    The choice of Buhari in 2015, it is said, was a Hobson choice in the sense that instead of re-electing Good luck Jonathan whose government was knee-deep in corruption Buhari was a preferred option. But as Prof Soyinka rightly queried, why clamour for the same dictator who had turned Nigeria into his slave kingdom and even forbade any freedom from such slavery?

    So, Nigerians are the architects of their own ruin. Our woes in Nigeria, if you like, are self-inflicted woes. For example, when a Gani Fawehinmi presents himself for election he is rejected on the pseudo-rationalization that a Gani cannot successfully rule Nigeria. When a Pat Utomi presents himself for election he is also rejected on the flawed argument that he lacks the “political base” or “political platform”. But when a Buhari presents himself for election he is enthroned as a king.

    Therefore the ordinary Nigerians should blame themselves for their predicament. Obasanjo’s letter, in my view, calls for self-chastisement. If Nigeria were a country where the voters use their heads and hearts during elections, none of the failed politicians responsible for the abject poverty in Nigeria would have been voted to power.

    As Obasanjo rightly suggests, we have to make a clean break from our ruinous past. We have to look beyond the PDP and APC in 2019. The voters should be discerning in 2019 presidential election. They should not be carried away by mere fanatical impulse and sentiments.

    The Presidency is the central focus of power and responsibility in presidential democracy. Therefore it is essential that the Presidency functions effectively in presidential democracy. If the President is incapacitated both in intellect and health the presidential democracy will be incapacitated