Controversy seems to be trailing the panel constituted by President Goodluck Jonathan to probe the post election violence in some parts of the North.
Reason: While the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has said that the panel had the legal right to invite the Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, a chieftain of Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and a former Solicitor-General of Kaduna State, Malam Aliyu Umar faulted the body, saying that it was unconstitutional.
The ACF National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani who spoke with The Guardian yesterday, said that the Federal Government should appreciate the fact that the post election violence was as a result of several factors which later culminated in the destruction of lives and property.
Sani argued that the 13-man Panel constituted by the President had a lot of responsibilities to carry out because, "some of us believe that apart from the criminal aspect of the violence, the crises had religious, ethnic, political and economic colouration, which demanded that all issues most be given holistic view in finding solution to the problems".
He explained that "it is the responsibility of the investigative panel to invite anybody that could assist in finding solution to the problems unleashed by the violence", adding that asking Buhari to appear before the panel was not out of place.
Sani added: "If the panel is put in place by the Federal Government to investigate the recent post election violence, anybody can be invited to give evidence before the panel, including Buhari".
"There is nobody who is above the law. Buhari is a very decent man and committed to due process of law. If he is not a decent man, he will not commit himself to democracy and if the panel feels he has information to give or a case to answer he should be invited".
The ACF spokesperson further argued: " There is no harm in inviting the Presidential Candidate of the CPC before the panel. Buhari is not such a person that can take offence in such invitation, to give his own side of the story of what happened".
"I mean it, if the panel thinks that the activities of Buhari and CPC was not in consonance with democratic tenets or the unity of the country or they think Buhari can give them information, why not, he should be invited".
Meanwhile, Umar who reacted to the composition of the panel said that "it was wrong for Jonathan to put the panel together for the purpose of probing the violence, this is because it is not within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government to do so".
He explained that "under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the state governments have the exclusive right to constitute the panel for such investigation", pointing out that " I tell you very soon people will come out to challenge the legality of the panel set up by the President to probe the post election violence".
"There is already a precedent set by the Supreme Court on this issue. Even during the Oputa panel, similar issues were raised and the Supreme Court came out strongly to state the position of the constitution and the law, such that only state government have such powers to investigate and set up panels to investigate or probe such crises".
In the same vein, ex-Senator, Hyde Onuaguluchi yesterday criticised the probe panel, stressing that it was not the solution to the serial crises and violence in some northern parts of the country.
He stated that until the leadership of the country addressed certain basic issues affecting the ordinary Nigerian in the street, including access to education, health care, shelter and employment such violent crimes were bound to continue.
He stressed that the crises had continued despite inaugurating such probe panels in the past, asserting that the country needed not be bothered about the causes of disturbances in the north, arguing that the security agencies were already in the know about the causes of such violence.
Speaking in Enugu, Onuaguluchi stated that there was need to look at reports of similar panels set up in the past, stressing that turning in reports after every crisis without implementation would not help the country.
He said: "I do not buy into this panel thing, it is not necessary. We have had so many panels like that in the past and they have written reports and their reports have ended up in the dust bin.
Killings in Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna and in Maiduguri, have been happening and they have been setting up panel upon panel and nothing has ever been achieved. Nigeria is too large to be sending people on jamboree, visiting places and governors and collecting money and staying in expensive hotels and all that, and I ask what is our police force doing? Do we need to allow retired Supreme Court justices and so on to start touring Nigeria for the work that the police can sit down and fish out the perpetrators?
"I say this because these people don't have the kind of power that the police have, they don't have the kind of power the SSS, Civil Defence or Military have to arrest or detain; the committee you are setting don't have the kind of power these agencies have, they can invite somebody and the person can refuse to answer them, they cannot order the arrest of somebody because they don't have the power. If we have all these security agencies and they are not able to narrow down the areas and causes of these serial crises, then I don't see what the committee is going to do", he added.
Source: Arewa, others disagree on polls violence tribunal (http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47587:arewa-others-disagree-on-polls-violence-tribunal&catid=1:national&Itemid=559)