It’s A Lie, Gani Fawehinmi Never Got Favours From Buhari Military Regime- Richard Akinnola
A prominent lawyer and journalist, Mr. Richard Akinnola has debunked the allegation by former Deputy Director of the State Security Service, Brigadier-General Kunle Togun (rtd.) that renowned civil rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi supported the military regime of General Muhammadu Buhari (31 December 1983 to 27 August 1985) because of the favours he got from the regime that was regarded as draconian.
Fawehinmi died on 5 September 2009 a prolonged battle with lung cancer. He was 71 years old.
Last week, Togun said in a podcast interview with journalist, Edmund Obilo that Fawehinmi supported Buhari military regime, and ignored the instruction of the Nigerian Bar Association not to appear before that administration’s Special Military Tribunals because of the patronage from the Buhari regime.
In the podcast, Togun alleged: ‘There is this patronage (to Fawehinmi), it has to do with New York. And the money were in (United States) dollars. Before the thing materialised, Babangida took over’. General Ibrahim Babangida overthrew the Buhari military regime on 27 August 1985.
Togun alleged that Fawehinmi was vehemently against the Babangida regime because he was pained that the coup, which overthrew Buhari, scuttled the latter’s business favour to the famous lawyer, which was in the works before military coup of 31 December 1983. He alleged that Fawehinmi was supporting the Buhari regime, particularly on the trial of politicians for corruption by military tribunal.
Akinnola, one of Fawehinmi’s closest associates, described Togun’s account as ‘pure fiction’, adding: ‘Gani was NEVER a businessman. He was into three things: He practiced Law, he wrote Law and he published Law. He never sought for, nor received any government patronage. There was no way the General Babangida we all knew would have this sort of information on Gani and never used it for the eight years that Gani became a thorn in his flesh’.
On the support for the Buhari regime’s trial of the Second Republic politicians at a Special Military Tribunal, Akinnola said: ‘There was no doubt that Gani supported General Buhari’s war on corruption with the setting up of the Recovery of Public property (Special Military Tribunals) Decree 3 of 1984, which pitted him against the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). While it is true that Gani supported the Buhari junta on the trial of politicians and former public officers, his support was not blanket. He squared up with Buhari when it came to matter of rule of law and disobedience to court orders. One example would suffice’.
