Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, (SAN) has condemned and described as illegal, the deportation of destitute from states where they live to their states of origin.
Falana said the deportation of some people by the Lagos State Government to their states was contrary to the provision of the constitution which stipulates that Nigerians can live in any part of the country.
The lawyer who condemned the action during an interview with newsmen in Ado Ekiti yesterday, said virtually all the states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory were guilty of this offence.
According to Falana, no Nigerian government had any moral right to deport their citizens from their states of residence to their states of origin for any reason, or on the excuse that they are beggars, saying Nigeria itself was a beggarly nation because its leaders always go cap-in-hand to beg for aid from even countries that were poor.
He said, “It will be wrong to restrict the condemnation of illegal deportation to Lagos State because many other states are into this barbaric act. The deportation of some beggars by the Lagos State Government to Anambra State was illegal, it is against the constitution.
”But you will see this hypocrisy, Anambra State that is kicking against this deported 29 beggars to Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi States in December 2011. Rivers State deported 113 Nigerians to their different states. Akwa Ibom State is about to deport two mad men to Lagos State now. How did they know that the mad men are from Lagos State? Mad men who can’t reason well. The FCT is the guiltiest of them all.”
Mr. Falana, however called the government to address wage factors that brought these destitute citizens into this condition saying nobody would be happy begging on the road.
Falana, described the increasing involvement of the military in internal security in Nigeria, as worrisome, saying the police were not equipped enough to cope with the challenges of insecurity.
He described as illegal the operation of Multinational Joint Task Force in the country, saying it was tantamount to declaration of war on Nigeria.
According to Falana, the Federal Government had achieved very little in its efforts to tackle insecurity, saying terrorism and other crimes would be successfully tackled if government downplayed religion extremism and created jobs for the teeming unemployed youths in the country.