Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, (SAN) has
condemned and described as illegal, the deportation of destitute from
states where they live to their states of origin.
Falana
said the deportation of some people by the Lagos State Government to their
states was contrary to the provision of the constitution which stipulates that
Nigerians can live in any part of the country.
The
lawyer who condemned the action during an interview with newsmen in Ado Ekiti
yesterday, said virtually all the states of the federation including the
Federal Capital Territory were guilty of this offence.
According
to Falana, no Nigerian government had any moral right to deport their citizens
from their states of residence to their states of origin for any reason, or on
the excuse that they are beggars, saying Nigeria itself was a beggarly nation
because its leaders always go cap-in-hand to beg for aid from even countries
that were poor.
He said,
“It will be wrong to restrict the condemnation of illegal deportation to Lagos
State because many other states are into this barbaric act. The deportation of
some beggars by the Lagos State Government to Anambra State was illegal, it is
against the constitution.
”But you
will see this hypocrisy, Anambra State that is kicking against this deported 29
beggars to Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi States in December 2011. Rivers State deported
113 Nigerians to their different states. Akwa Ibom State is about to deport two
mad men to Lagos State now. How did they know that the mad men are from Lagos
State? Mad men who can’t reason well. The FCT is the guiltiest of them
all.”
Mr.
Falana, however called the government to address wage factors that brought
these destitute citizens into this condition saying nobody would be happy
begging on the road.
Falana,
described the increasing involvement of the military in internal security in
Nigeria, as worrisome, saying the police were not equipped enough to cope with
the challenges of insecurity.
He
described as illegal the operation of Multinational Joint Task Force in the
country, saying it was tantamount to declaration of war on Nigeria.
According
to Falana, the Federal Government had achieved very little in its efforts to
tackle insecurity, saying terrorism and other crimes would be
successfully tackled if government downplayed religion extremism and created
jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the country
Source: Nigerian Pilot
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