The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, has said the Federal Governemnt held on to the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheikh Ibraheem el-Zakzakky, because it appealed the Justice Gabriel Kolawole’s ruling mandating his release.
Adesina, who spoke during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, said the Attorney-General of the Federation at the time, Abubakar Malami (SAN), appealed the ruling.
He said, “I know that the immediate past AGF in whose purview it was to make pronouncements on that, address the issue. If bail is granted and another case subsists and there is an immediate filing of appeal, you have to wait till it is dispensed with. So, that is a legal matter which is outside my purview but as a layman, an unlearned man as lawyers would call us, we know that until all cases are dispensed with, you don’t say that it has been concluded.”
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Adesina said the matter had since been taken before a court in Kaduna State and the bail hearing would come up next Monday.
On allegations that the police ought not to have fired live bullets into the protesters on Monday, the President’s spokesman said, “I tell you despite what happened yesterday, if the police had responded with greater force, you know we would not be talking about what we are talking now.
“A deputy commissioner of police was killed. Yes, very sad, that is one life just like any other life. He did not deserve to die in service to the country but if the police had responded in similar fashion, you would have been talking of rivers of blood in Abuja now.
“I still believe there was some restraint yesterday despite what happened and personally I still commend the police for showing that restraint.”