Justice Muhammed Oloruntoyin retired as Grand Khadi of Sharia Court of Appeal, Kwara State. Over the years, his views on legal issues have been reckoned with given his vast knowledge of law and experience in Jurist. He speaks with our JUDICIARY CORRESPONDENT, KAYODE ADEOTI on issues ranging from ritual killings, rape in Ilorin among other sundry issues. Excerpts:
There seems to be prevalence of rape, ritual killing cases in Ilorin, what is responsible and what’s the way out?
When it’s time for the world to come to an end, these are what we will be seeing; banditry, rape, incest, adultery, killings, kidnapping. Then, the issue of interest will come to play. There will be no regard for lives again. Children are no longer respecting their parents, there will be knowledge but ethics and morals will go. With the advent of technology like WhatsApp, Facebook and many more, they will all enhance knowledge but that knowledge will not be useful because the moral aspect of it is not there. How on earth will one go on Facebook promoting man and woman having canal knowledge of each other? But, it will happen, those who have the real knowledge, who reads will be calm about this and tilt to their God. The worse happening at this time is, those who claim to be religious clerics, who perpetrate all manners of atrocities. Lawyers, especially the senior ones will have lies as their stock in trade, and they will be charging huge amount of money as professional fees, that is what has been playing out at the Tribunal, the lawyers involved have taken billions to handle the suit between the Atiku Abubakar and President Muhammadu Buhari. There was news of how people who have no ailment sleep and before dawn, they’ve gone, there will be much of heart attacks because trust will go, people in high places will betray many people once they get to power. The prevalence of this menace is never a case of weak laws, we have laws, but we don’t have those who will implement them. Somebody in the highest place of judiciary fell from grace to grass, because of corruption. All these are signs of end time, the end of time is near, though it may not come as expected because, a thousand years before God, is just like a day.
On the issue El-Zakzaky, what’s the position of law?
If judgment is given, and it’s not executed, the executive should know why they’ve not executed it. The Federal Government was so clear over the issue, he said sometimes government do not comply with court order because of national interest. If he’s released, the whole country will burn because that organisation is not an Islamic one, it is a wicked organisation that has its sponsors from outside the country. If El-Zakzaky is released and allowed to go home, he’s going to regroup. Look at what comes up on his refusal to be treated, that means, he’s faking his sickness. I should be supporting him as my Muslim brother, but that man is not one of us. When end of the world approaches, people will call themselves what they are not.
What is the position of the law over the continued detention of Omoyele Sowore, the orchestrator of #RevolutionNow?
It’s simple, except we want to go technical, it’s in law, when we see a technical defect in a case, we can hang on that to throw it away. But we have to understand what revolution is it simply means, the structure on ground now which was built for over 50 years will be pulled down for another. That, he want to achieve that in a day, a treasonable offence. I’m not a politician but a retired jurist on this case and that of El-zakzaky, we can’t expect Federal Government to just fold hand, No, we must have a decent society. To say the truth, he’s being sponsored.
How do you see the attack on former deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and the threat on Buhari by the indigenous people of Biafra (IPOD)?
Ekweremadu is an Ibo man, and his kinsmen attacked him in Germany. it’s unfortunate that the attack is not only on Ekweremadu they’re attacking all of us. He’s an important personality and I don’t see why someone who is representing us should be attacked. He was in Germany, although on a private visit but he’s our ambassador who should be accorded respect. All this boils down to sign of the end time. The real Ibo in Nigeria will not want that, they have investment everywhere.
23 Nigerians are on death row in Saudi Arabia, is there anything our government can do to assuage the situation?
This issue is difficult but simple to answer, we must remember that anytime our people are going on pilgrimage, Federal, State and Local Governments will advice that individuals on the journey should make sure they don’t toil with their laws in the foreign land. There, they implement their laws unlike ours. If our people are going out, they must be able to keep the laws of the country they travelled to. I want to advice all citizens, anywhere we’re travelling to, to make sure we abide by their laws.
