Sunday Ani
The proposed Operation Positive Identification (OPI) by the Nigerian Army billed to begin nationwide on November 1 has been described as a subtle ploy to foist the obnoxious apartheid policy of the white minority regime in South Africa on Nigerians
National Chairman, Peoples Alternative Front and rights activist, Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in a statement, yesterday, also described the planned exercise as gross infringement on the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights to freedom of movement and dignity of Nigerian citizens.
The Army had announced that OPI, which is on-going in the North East theatre of Boko Haram insurrection, would be extended to cover the entire nation.
As a result, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Yusuf Buratai has directed Nigerians to move about with legitimate means of identification such as national identification card, voters registration card, drivers’ license and international passport or other valid official identification during the duration of the almost a month-long exercise.
According to Buratai, the OPI is being conducted by the Army to combat armed robbery, kidnapping and allied criminal activities in all the 36 states of the federation.
But, Falana has disagreed with the Army, describing the directive as a sad reminder of the illegal practice of the white minority rulers, which compelled Africans to carry pass books outside their homelands or designated areas under the apartheid regime in South Africa. Even at that, the Senior Advocate argued that under apartheid regime in South Africa the bearing of pass books had been outlawed.
He lamented that similar operations such as ‘Operation Python Dance, Operation Scorpion’ and others conducted by the Army in civilian areas had recently led to reckless arrests, detention and extrajudicial killings of innocent citizens.
“In fact, some of the armed soldiers involved in anti-robbery operations have been indicted in the brutal killing of police officers on duty. They have also raped women including undergraduates,” he said.
He further argued that since majority of Nigerians do not have any of the Army’s approved means of identification, they would be subjected to unwarranted intimidation and physical attacks by armed soldiers, who would pretend that they were looking for criminal elements.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that that the planned operation did not see the light of the day. “Since Nigerians are not a conquered people, the degrading ‘Operation Positive Identification’ should be stopped by the military authorities,” he urged.
Falana also said the operation is illegal, using sections 215 and 217 of the Constitution to support his position.
“By virtue of sections 215 and 217 of the Constitution of Nigeria, the Nigeria Police Force is saddled with the responsibility to maintain law and order in the country, while the armed forces are required to defend Nigeria from external aggression and maintain its territorial integrity,” he said.
He agreed that the armed forces might be involved in the suppression of insurrection as well as acting in aid of civil authorities to restore order when called upon to do so by the president, but insisted that in the instant case, there had been no insurrection recorded in many parts of the country to warrant the planned usurpation of police powers by the Nigerian Army, neither has President Buhari deployed armed soldiers to combat armed robbery, abduction and banditry.
He also drew attention to several cases where the courts have held that the armed forces have no right to usurp the powers of the police to maintain internal security in the country, citing maintaining law and order during election as an instance of such court orders.
“It is up to the police to protect our nascent democracy and not the military, otherwise democracy might be wittingly or unwittingly militarised. This is not what the citizenry bargained for, after wresting power from the military in 1999. Conscious steps should be taken to civilianise the polity and ensure survival and sustenance of democracy,” he submitted.
