Army acted in public interest, says group on Gana’s killing

The Middle- Belt Civil Rights Congress ( MBCRC) has added its voice to the debate on the killing of Terwase  Akwaza, Benue’s “most wanted criminal” better known as Gana.

The group said the security agencies were right to have taken the necessary action that could prevent further threats to lives and property.

Gana was said to have been killed while being transported to Makurdi, the Benue state capital, to be granted amnesty by the state governor, Samuel Ortom.

Controversies, however, surround the circumstances of his death as some said he was killed after he surrendered his arms while some claim he was killed in an exchange of gunfire.

But the Middle-belt group in a statement said the controversy surrounding the death of Gana is needless as he made himself unworthy of any act of leniency under Nigerian laws.

Maxwell Godwin, president of the congress, said anybody that relapses into crime even after conviction and having served the term is not considered worthy of any form of leniency as that person is considered a serial offender.

“I’ve not come across anywhere in the world where a suspect is granted amnesty more than once,” he said.

“Once there’s a relapse into the crime for which forgiveness was given, the beneficiary makes himself a recidivist and  unworthy of benefitting from such favours in future.”

He said in the case of Gana, it would appear that the political leaders in Benue are  trying to bend the laws to the extent that Gana remains perpetually unprosecuted.

“What they were doing with Gana has no backing in law. A person cannot be too powerful to the state that you’re perpetually afraid to prosecute him even when he has demonstrated in words and deeds that he has no respect for such arrangements,” he said.

The group president said precedents are taken very seriously in negotiating conditions for settlement saying Gana by his past conduct has failed in every material way to show that he deserves such favours.

Godwin said what the security forces  have done in the case of Gana is defensible in court as they have the right to take actions that would protect other citizens at any given time.

“Can you imagine the number of people whose lives were put in danger the first and second times that Gana reneged on the amnesty agreement? And can you imagine the lives that would be under threat if he again pulls out of another agreement?” he asked.

“Extra judicial killings is said to have occurred when a suspect is not availed the opportunity to defend himself in a court of law. But what we have seen in the case of Gana is that twice he has admitted to committing the crime by accepting amnesty and then going back to the crime again.

“He has in the eyes of the law made a statement of defence and when the security agencies saw that he is a character who could not be trusted and could pose further threats to the lives of hundreds of people, they did what was right, as the laws permits the security agencies to bear arms and use it when there’s are such threats.”