Banditry: Lawyer hails court decision

A legal practitioner, Oshile Ayo Martins, has hailed the recent court pronouncement which held that any form or act of banditry has now become a criminal offence before the law.

Blueprint reports that a High Court sitting in Abuja recently gave the verdict criminalising banditry in the country.

The court held further by declaring bandits terrorists.

While fielding questions over the development, the legal practitioner described court actions as upliftment of the tenet of Separation of Power.

Oshile, a United State of America based-Lawyer who spoke exclusively to Blueprint, added that the judiciary has by that pronouncement lived up to it’s expectation.

According to him, by the pronouncement, the Judiciary has just called the bluff of the executive, saying the Legislative and the Judiciary have to wake up to their responsibilities.

He said two separate arms of government cannot continue to allow the executive usurp their powers.

“There is need for this arm of government to show that the judiciary is not in anyway inferior or an underdog of the executive arm of government.

“There should be Separation of Power and the tenet must be upheld and that is what the Judiciary has actually done by the declaration.

“Before now, I wondered why the executive are footdraging on whether or not to label the so-called bandits as terrorists, for whatever reasons whether sinister or otherwise.

“Don’t forget that the national assembly had at one time or another charged the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to declare this bandits terrorists to no avail, so if the judiciary is now coming out to do that via a court verdict, then it’s simply calling Dog it’s real name because we cannot continue to brandish bandits as though they are not bad,” he said.

While urging the three arms of government to close ties, he further charged them to dispense quality leadership, insisting that at a time like this, government must be seen as being properly run so that the scourge of insecurity and other forms of criminality plaguing the nation can be defeated.