SAN Muhammad Sani Tatu transcription
This issue of kano jugement that was delivered has generated so many comments here and there.
Of recent we came accross comments by lawyers that said they are 200 of them who resolved to ensure that NNPP candidate win at the SP court.
Since the begining of the judgement, we have a legal group on whatsapp where we discuss legal issues and what has been trending in our discussions is this kano judgement.
It appears virtually everybody in that group is in agreement with the conventional peaceful of law that what is being pronounced in the court will take precedent as agains’t any other document that is being paraded after the delivery of the judgement.
This argeumebt has been on for long and we have about 17 to 18 Senior Advocate of Nigeria,( SAN) among other lawyers. In all we are about 94 lawyers on the group where real legal issues are being discussed and then directives and opionions are proffered.
So we now recalled that virtually everybody in that group is in agreement with the fact that what is being delivered in court should be seen as the position of the law against any other documents released.
It is as a result of this we resolved that we should constitute ourselves with a sub-Committe of 13 SAN to lead other lawyers to ensure that when the matrer gets to supreme court, we go in and canvese this position of ours that we are with the decison judgment that was delivered in the open Court of Appeal, affirming the decison of Tribunal that Gawuna, the Gubernatorial candidate of APC is the person who shouldbe declared as winner of the Kano state election that was conducted. This is our positon.
Question:
Other group paraded 200 lawyers. Is it am intimidation or what does it have to do wirh the case?
Answer
Our positom is not just about the case it self. We are trained to know the law, practice it and ensure we protect the law. It means it is our duty to protect the system. It is not all about pdp or apc, but what is most important is as lawyers trained to protect the system, what are we doing to protect the law when there is this kind of controversy ?
For sure we will not make a comment now because the case is still in court. But we have taken a stand and postion which we intend to canverse. So the issue of intimidation …is not all about numbers, it is about canversing reasonable arguement or qhat you think a 3rd reasonable party will agree with. Even logic shouldbe seen to be within the ambit of the law. This is very clear.
So for numbers, it is not just about numbers but the intellectual presentation of the issue.
Question:
As a layman who ask that a court will admit it made an error but then you as a SAN said you stood to protect the law. Does that mean you are protecting what is right or wrong?
Answer
There is nothing that is as easy as the law. All you have to do is go through the law and apply it and if you apply it wrongly, every reasonable third party will know that you applied it wrongly. If you apply it rightly, it is there as agains’t chemistry where you have to do a different experiment.
So the issue of wrong protection of the law does not even arise in this circumstance.
Question:
On general situation in kano state. Immidialty tribunal gave it verdictn the kano atmosphere was tense. Also when the Appeal court gave its own verdict there was same thing. Now the issue is coming to the supreme court, what can you factor in about the tensive atmosphere?
Answer:
Like i said earlier when we have the chance to address the press, we don’t discuss the issues that are in court. But for the purpose of peace, the whole idea is that let us see the law the way it is, not the they way it ought to be.
Part of the law is the pronouncement of the court. If the cpurt makes pronouncment, that is the law. See it that way and don’t bring in any sentiment. The moment you accept the outcome the way it is, there is going to be peace. But the moment an outsider sees the law in a diffrent way rather than how it should be, then there is going to be controversy. That exactly is what is happening in kano, where some people feel the law should be the way they want it to be as agains’t the way it is being pronounced. That is what led to this chaos.
We have taken a stand. We have mapped out a strategy. And this strategy i can assure you is within the ambit of the law. We won’t consider any other thing. Except the way it is.
Questikn:
The SAN you are talkong about, are there any from other Geo-political zones or just here from the north.
Like i said earlier, we have Lawyer group with 17 SANs. And about 49 other senior lawyers. I’m trying to limit the numbers ao that it won’t look like a noise making kind of group. We are real intellectuals wherw we discuss legal issues and we proffer solutions. So all this 17 SANs in the group together with the other 49 groups are in support of the judgement as it is being delivered. In fact one other person who was not with us have come back to the fold after carefully studying every thing.
We are talking about 17 SANs and 49 senior lawyers accross the nation and in fact the leader of the team is from the south east. He is a very prominent senior Advocate of Nigeria who is highly intrested in the matter.
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