News Obiaks News

A senior lawyer, Femi Falana, has asked the federal high court in Lagos to stop the planned military operation tagged Operation Positive Identification.

             Falana made the request in a suit filed against the Nigerian Army, the chief of army staff, General Tukur Buratai, and the attorney-general of the federation, Abubakar Malami, in Lagos on October 25, Channels TV reports. The legal practitioner argued that the Nigeria Police Force has been conferred with the exclusive power to maintain law and order and secure public safety and public order in the country by virtue of section 215 (3) of the 1999 constitution as amended. Citing, section 217 (1) of the constitution, Falana noted that the federal government can only deploy soldiers for the suppression of insurrection to restore law and order when it is clear that the civil disturbance cannot be contained by the Nigeria police.
            The human rights lawyer insisted that the Nigerian Army is not empowered by the constitution to assume the duties of the Nigeria police in the nation’s internal security. He urged the army to focus on battling Boko Haram terrorists in the northeast of the country rather than embarking on what he described as the planned harassment and intimidation of Nigerians. “I am praying the court to restrain the Armed Forces, the Nigerian Army permanently from subjecting Nigerians to such ridiculous harassment as they are planning," he said.  Falana also noted that many Nigerians do not have passports, drivers licences, voters cards, and international passports required by the army for the Identification process. Earlier this week, the nigerian army released a circular informing Nigerians about an operation tagged positive identification, with the aim of identifying Nigerians with positive IDs, but came out on a later date to inform the public that the information was fake.