NBA EX-BOSS CONDEMNS A'IBOM'S 'DRACONIAN' LAW

FORMER Chairman of the Owerri branch of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Ndionyenma Nwankwo, has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to prevail on Akwa Ibom State Governor Godswill Akpabio and the House of Assembly to repeal a recent law they passed that empowers the chief executive to detain anyone perceived to be a security risk for 14 days, which is renewable.

Nwankwo warned that if the law was allowed to be in force, it could lead to crisis, stressing that the Act was a re-enactment of infamous Decree 2 of 1984, which the military promulgated to arrest Nigerians without access to justice.

He regretted that it was dated March 31, 2011, after the governor had requested that the bill be retroactively dated January 2011.

The most worrisome aspect of the law, Nwankwo told The Guardian, was the application of the law last week by a Magistrate's Court to detain a politician.

He said Section 35 of Nigeria's Constitution had provided liberty for the people, stating that such state law 'in a democratic dispensation was anti-people and anti-democracy'.