After the Force headquarters declared him wanted for issuing falsehood against President Muhammadu Buhari, Kassim Afgebua, the media aide to ex-President Ibrahim Badamoso Babangida has lawyered up as he prepares to turn himself in Wednesday.
In a statement sent out Monday night, his counsels, Kayode Ajulo &Co. said their client is a well-known journalist and former cabinet member of government with a known address in Benin, Edo State and Abuja, and should have been put on notice before the police issued its arrest publicly.
“For the avoidance of doubt, there are spelt-out procedures for declaring a person wanted by the police. The police or other law enforcement agencies can declare a person wanted if they find reasons to do so, particularly if the person is a suspect in the commission of a crime and is on the run,” the lawyers said.
“The public must know that our client, in discharging his duty to his principal, General Ibrahim Babangida, GCFR cannot by any stretch of the imagination be said to have committed a crime that warrants such negative publicity. Neither is he on the run.
According to them, Afegbua remains undeterred by the desperate efforts of some individuals to intimidate him and bend his will and rights against the Constitution provisions, framework of Nigeria Police Force Act and the laws of the land.
“The circumscription of his constitutional right to the dignity of self, freedom of expression and fair hearing denotes that there is a desperate attempt to scare him into submission,” the statement said.
According to them, Afegbua will turn himself in when he returns from his trip.
His principal, Babangida, has also maintained he takes responsibility for whatever his media aide wrote in the first statement discredited by another one the retired general personally signed.
Afegbua, on behalf of his boss, Sunday night, criticised President Muhammadu Buhari, and asked him to step down for a younger leader in 2019.
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