On 25 October 2021, Speakers of the 36 states' Houses of Assembly in the country rose from their conference held in Katsina, passing a resolution calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists.
Before then, the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El Rufai, had made a similar call. Another twist was added when the Islamic cleric Ahmed Gumi said that if President Buhari declared bandits as terrorists, it would cause a cataclysm that would disintegrate and end the country.
To my mind, the controversy is uncalled for and misplaced. It is needless and red herring because the law on the subject matter is as clear as a crystal ball.
I think the controversy is largely due to a lack of appreciation of the law dealing with the procedure for the declaration of any person (s) as a terrorist or terrorist organization (s).
How do you expect bandits operating shadowy in the forest or bush to be declared terrorists in such circumstances?
How do you, in the first place, determine who they are? You have to ascertain who the bandits are before you can declare them terrorists. Are these bandits operating in groups, or as an association of two or more persons, or a terrorist organization?
Also, you have to know under which platform or aegis or name of entity they operate. The terrorism prevention Act contemplates that two or more persons who associate carrying out or perpetrating terrorism can be declared a terrorist.
So the law does not contemplate that only person who is operating only to be declared a terrorist. So even when two or more people associate to carry out banditry, their identity must be ascertainable, where they are indeterminate, how is it possible to declare them terrorists.
The process for declaration two or more persons or an organization as a terrorist organization for proscription is not entirely an executive action. It is more or less a judicial action though the president has an input to make through approval of the declaration of the Attorney General of the federation.
The Terrorism Prevention Act, 2011 ( as amended) stipulates that the Attorney General of the Federation is vested with the responsibility with the approval of the President to make an application to a Judge of the Federal High Court in chambers seeking for an order to declare two or more persons who associate to carry out or perpetrate acts of terrorism or any organization that engages in :
a. participating or collaborating in the act of terrorism;
b.promtoing, encouraging, or exhorting others to commit an act of terrorism ;
c. setting up or pursuing acts of terrorism.
After the order is granted, it shall be published in the official gazette or two national newspapers or any other place the CourtCourt may determine.
The precedent of the procedure for the declaration of any group of persons in association to carry out acts of terrorism as terrorists or organization as a terrorist organization has been established in two cases.
On 20 September 2017, the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Honourable Justice Abdul Karafati, granted an order of proscription as a terrorist organization upon the application of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation of Indigenous people of Biafra, IPOB.
On 13 June 2013, Jamaatu Ahlis-Sunna Liddaawati Wal Jihad (Boko Haram) and Jamaat Anssarul Muslimina Fi Biladis Sudan (Ansaru) were declared terrorist organizations and proscribed by the federal high court Court. The order was gazetted as terrorism (Prevention ) (Proscription Order) Notice, 2013.
However, bandits' offences that constitute terrorism can be tried under the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2011.
Okoi Obono-Obla
Publisher: Don Martyn L.O
Ikeduru APC Media Hub
08032950897
Ikeduruapcmediahub@gmail.com
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