Major-General Zamani Lekwot (rtd) and some of his Kataf kinsmen were, on February 2, 1993 sentenced to death by the Zangon-Kataf Civil Disturbances Special Tribunal in Kaduna. Their sentences were, however, later commuted to jail terms. FRANCIS FAMOROTI, Head, Judiciary writes.
A retired army officer, Major Gen. Zamani Lekwot was the Military Governor of Rivers State from July 1975 until July 1978 during the military administrations of Generals Murtala Muhammed and Olusegun Obasanjo. He had a successful military career from 1962 till he was retired in 1985 when Gen. Ibrahim Babangida became the Chief of Staff following the military coup of December 31, 1984 that brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power. After his retirement, he went into private business.
Sometime in the early 1990s, there were civil disturbances in some parts of Kaduna State between the Christians and Muslims. There was unprecedented arson, large-scale destruction of property and loss of lives in the state. According to some press reports, as many as 3,000 persons might have been killed.
The Police and military authorities responded swiftly and arrested hundreds of suspects while the Federal Military Government fingered Lekwot as the arrowhead of the crisis.
By far, more worrisome was the May 15, 1992 violence which erupted between the mainly Moslem Hausa and Christian Kataf communities of the Zangon-Kataf Local Government Area in Kaduna State, with many deaths.
Lekwot, a Christian leader of Kataf extraction, was arrested following the February and May 1992 Zangon-Kataf clashes.
It was obvious that he had stepped on the toes of those in the corridors of power at the time.
Lekwot and other Kataf leaders were detained without charge under Decree No. 2 of 1984 until July 29, 1992 when they were charged with unlawful assembly. Along with five other Christians of Kataf origin, Lekwot was brought to trial on four charges, including unlawful assembly with intent to subjugate the Hausa Community in Zangon-Kataf.
The Babangida junta later promulgated a decree which established the Civil Disturbances Special Tribunal pursuant to Decree No 2 of 1987 (Cap 53 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990).
The tribunal was vested with jurisdiction over a number of offences under the Criminal and Penal Codes, including the capital offences of treason and murder.
Other offences covered by the Decree include: unlawful assembly, demolition of buildings during riots, insults to a religion, disturbing religious worship, membership in unlawful societies, and arson.
The tribunal, chaired by a Supreme Court judge, convicted no fewer than 75 people. They were sentenced to terms of imprisonment, and, under the Decree, had no right to appeal.
Although the Civil Disturbances Special Tribunal acquitted Lekwot and five others on August 18, 1992, they were immediately re-arrested and detained in Kaduna prisons.
Lekwot and the five others were charged on September 4, 1992 with culpable homicide, a charge which carries a possible death sentence, and other offences. Twenty others were also tried in connection with the riots, but were acquitted.
The Civil Disturbances (Special Tribunal) Decree, No. 2 of 1987, gave the head of state the power to constitute a special court, presided over by a High Court judge, to try cases involving civil riots and disturbances. The decree specifically precluded any right of appeal to a higher court, and gave the power to confirm or disallow convictions and sentences to the military government.
During the trial, the defendants had appealed to the High Court, complaining that their fundamental human rights were being denied and that the Special Tribunal was biased against them.
In response, the government promulgated a new decree in late 1992, Decree No. 55, confirming that defendants before the Special Tribunal may not challenge any of its proceedings in the High Court. On January 4, 1993 the lawyers defending Lekwot and the other defendants led by Chief G.O. K. Ajayi (SAN) withdrew from the trial in protest over the provisions of Decree No. 55.
According to another account, On September 4, 1992, the government prepared a new 22-count charge for offences ranging from unlawful assembly to disturbing the peace and culpable homicide, the latter of which is punishable by death.
Lekwot and five fellow Katafs in 1992 were charged afresh before the Tribunal in respect of communal riots that devastated the Zangon-Kataf community of Kaduna State.
According to the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Lekwot was tried for being a non-violent vocal leader of the Katafs and a minority Christian leader. [...] It is on record that while all the leaders and innocent Katafs were arrested and hurriedly hounded into detention, none of the Hausa Fulani, who engineered and ignited the riot, were arrested.
Despite efforts to halt the tribunal proceedings on the basis that, due to the Muslim composition of the tribunal, a fair trial cannot be guaranteed for the detainees, and that the charges are triable in regular courts, the Kaduna High Court refused to grant an injunction. The ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeal on November 20, 1992. Lekwot and five other persons were condemned to death by hanging on February 2, 1993.
Their trial and conviction by the Civil Disturbances Special Tribunal in Kaduna attracted the interests and sympathy of the entire citizenry and the international community as the tribunal found Lekwot, a retired army officer, and five others guilty of "culpable homicide punishable by death".
But their sentences were later commuted to five- year jail terms. By December 1995, Lekwot had received a state pardon.
When the Obasanjo civil administration set up the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC) in 1999, Lekwot filed a petition before the panel alleging that the Babangida regime violated his constitutional rights. The petition by Lekwot, which was on request consolidated with the one filed by Aiyap Youth Forum from the same Zangon- Kataf, who complained of vandalisation of the community by the police, was adjourned to Abuja where a term of memorandum of understanding was expected to be filed.
He, however, withdrew the petition and opted to settle his rift with the erstwhile military regime out- of -court.
But Lekwot, in a recent press interview, explained that 61 Katafs were detained at the time. He said himself and 14 others among those tried for their alleged complicity in the Zangon-Kataf clashes were condemned to death. The retired army officer said he had, however, forgiven all his detractors, especially Babangida who treated him, a fellow general like a common criminal during the period.
National Mirror