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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
A legal practitioner from Abia State, Chief Ukpai Ukairo, has given Governor Alex Otti ultimatum to dissolve the Judicial Panel of Inquiry on recovery of Government properties and funds or face legal action.
Earlier in the week, Otti inaugurated a five man Judicial Panel of Inquiry headed by Justice Ikwuoma Duruoha-Igwe (retd) with five terms of reference to recover Government properties and funds.
In a release, Ukairo said the inauguration of a judicial panel of inquiry on the recovery of Government properties and funds was another “circus show of illegalities of Governor Otti”.
Ukairo said It was evident from the utterances of the Governor, the designation of the panel, and their terms of reference that certain persons have already been accused, tried, and convicted.
“The only job left for the panel is to recover the properties and funds of the convicts.
“It is, thus, clear that the entire process is in utter breach of the right to fair hearing as enshrined in Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, Article 7 of the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, and several other international conventions.
“It is also important to stress that by Section 3(1) of the Commission of Inquiry Law, CAP.69, Laws of Abia State, 2005, the only power of the Governor is to set up a panel of inquiry. He has no power to set up a panel for the “recovery of Government properties and funds” because he would have, by that, as in the instant case, turned the Executive into the accuser, the prosecutor, the judge, and the executor of the decision.
“In addition, the Governor, true to his style failed to “issue a Commission” but merely acted on a Public Statement by the Secretary to the Abia State Government.”
The lawyer said it was appropriate to stress that from the very minute the Governor was sworn in he had been screaming about people who stole government property, stressing that the approach was the style of every dictator.
Ukairo said based on the foregoing, if the governor failed to immediately issue the dissolution of the Judicial Panel of Inquiry, he would without delay ignite the necessary legal machinery to ensure that scarce public resources are not only wasted on an illegal venture, but that the rule of law is upheld.
