A human rights lawyer Mike Ozekhome says El-Rufai should be given a fair hearing in the probe of his administration.
A Kaduna House of Assembly committee was set up to probe the administration of the former governor of the state and had indicted El-Rufai on corruption charges and also made other recommendations.
But Ozekhome said while the committee had done its job, it was right to allow El-Rufai to defend himself against the charges.
“I’m not a Nostradamus, the man who saw tomorrow, nor am I the oracle at Ile Ife [in Osun State] that will go gaze into the future to pronounce it the next Ooni need to be. So, I wouldn’t be able to know what the outcome would be,” he said on Thursday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily
“But I think that whatever happens, El-Rufai must be given his right to a fair hearing. The assembly has just merely made a recommendation and told the governor to implement it.
“The governor may look at it and, and feel well, ‘This is not worth the energy at the time. Let’s face other [things]’. Others may say, ‘N423 billion they are accusing him of is not a small amount; let’s dig in.’ So, whatever the outcome would be, don’t forget that El-Rufai also has its own fundamental rights to protect. For example, he may decide to go to court to challenge the indictment itself.”
READ ALSO: Kaduna Assembly Indicts El-Rufai For Alleged Corruption, Recommends Commissioner’s Suspension
‘You Don’t indict by Proxy’
“Maybe you could say he was not given a fair trial. He was never called. I don’t know whether he was called to come and defend himself,” he said.
Ozekhome asked: “Was he duly invited? Was he given an opportunity to defend himself? If he was and he chose to stay back, that’s another ball game. So, because I do not have all those duties, it becomes peremptory for me to [comment on it]
“You don’t indict a person by proxy. No, you don’t, particularly in a matter that has criminal connotations. You can’t do that by proxy. So, it has to be the person,” the lawyer said.
