Senator representing Kaduna Central at the Senate, Shehu Sani, has slammed the Nigerian government for refusing to honour rulings from the ECOWAS court.
Sen. Sani made this remark in a social media post after the ECOWAS court, sitting in Abuja, threw out an application by the Federal Government seeking the court to reject an application brought by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Kanu is asking the court to order the government to release him unconditionally and pay him $800 million in damages.
Sani, known for his blunt opinions, lamented Nigeria’s penchant for ignoring rulings from the ECOWAS court.
According to him, “Our track records of ignoring rulings of the ECOWAS court put our country in a bad light; it diminishes our status as a regional and continental moral and political authority.
“We cannot host and fund such an institution and at the same time rubbish it.
“At a time Africans are raising issues of selective justice by ICC in the Hague, it’s time to take our regional and continental courts seriously.
“We should either comply with rulings of the ECOWAS court or opt to pull out of it.
“Our leadership responsibilities in the continent of Africa should also include setting good examples in compliance to the rule of law as bitter as it may be to our other interests,” he said.
Though he did not mention Kanu in his reaction, some of his followers, mostly from the northern part of the country, opposed him with some saying the interest of the country is more important that such a ruling.