Izuchukwu OkosiHuman rights lawyer and activists Chief Femi Falana has expressed dismay over the Federal Government’s decision to free former Plateau and Taraba Governors for their culpability in financial misappropriation.
President Muhammadu Buhari has been criticised for granting pardon to the two former governors jailed for corrupt practices while petty thieves are left to possibly die in the prisons
The Council of State had on Thursday granted a presidential pardon to 159 convicts including the duo of Nyame and Dariye who were both jailed for allegedly stealing N1.16 billion and N1.6 billion respectively.
Rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN), pleaded the Federal Government to extend Thursday’s presidential pardon granted to some top Nigerians, to people serving terms for petty offences.
This, he argued, would reflect fairness and equality for all before the law.
The legal luminary threatened to mobilise other lawyers against FG if other convicts, especially those jailed for petty offences are not pardoned.
Falana made the call at the 1st anniversary of late Afenifere’s spokesman, Yinka Odumakin’s Lecture and Book Presentation
Falana further said: “All petty thieves in our prisons should be released. Under Section 17 of the 1999 Constitution, there shall be equality and equal rights for all citizens.
“Section 42 of the Constitution says there shall be no discrimination on the basis of class and gender, so you cannot take out a few people on the basis that they belong to a category or section of the society.
“I can assure you that if the government did not release others, I am going to call on lawyers whose clients are left in custody to come to court and challenge the discriminatory treatment of their clients.
“Just two weeks ago, a Nigerian was jailed for stealing N1,000 in Abuja; the accused pleaded with the judge that he had no food but the judge jailed him for six months.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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