A constitutional lawyer, as well as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in his own right, Professor Sebastine Hon, has assailed the actions of Naval Officer A.M. Yerima, who engaged in a recent run-in with Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike, calling his actions illegal as they constitute an obvious disregard for civilian authority.
In a statement posted by Prof. Hon using his X handle, he condemned the actions of the naval officer in trying to stop the minister of FCT from entering a parcel of land, saying that this is not acceptable as an excuse for obeying superior orders.
“Brushing aside sentiments, I strongly criticize in toto the actions of the Naval Officer, A.M. Yerima, who denied access to the FCT Minister to get into that parcel of land upon orders from superiors,” Hon said in his statement. According to him, “The legal limit of obedience by a junior to his superior is as set by the Supreme Court.”
While referring to another Supreme Court case in 2023 titled Onunze v. State, Hon explained that although an individual is bound by an order, they cannot be obligated by those which are “palpably illegal or manifestly unjust.” He also quoted Justice Ogunwunmiju, JSC, who reinforced, “Every military officer, every police officer, takes an oath neither only to obey orders, but to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He argued that if an officer carries out an illegal order, he is personally responsible for it, facing either disciplinary actions from his superiors or charges in court. He also cited the case of Nigeria Air Force v. James (2002), in which the Supreme Court reiterated that military personnel fall under military as well as civil laws, failing which they cannot claim sanctuary behind illegal orders.
“The illegal aspect of this instance is because no service regulation permits an officer on active service to mount guard at the private construction site of an officer of higher rank than he is,” he explained further. “If anything, they should have contacted the civil police in case they needed to investigate any criminal actions, but to do it by taking the law into his own hands is illogical.”
Prof. Hon continued to clarify that, in constitutional terms, the FCT Minister has as much power as a governor of a state. As per Sections 297 (2) and 302 of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution (as amended), all lands in the FCT are owned by the Federal Government, which has administrative control over them as exercised through the Minister by the President.
“Wike, in essence, occupies the office of the President/CSignup-CinafterG inChief in relation to matters of land management in the FCT,” he further explained. He also added, “Obstructing him is, therefore, to obstruct the presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Though admitting that the minister’s mode of operation appears to be “brash,” the SAN argued that the minister did what is legal, but the military officer broke both constitutional and military rules in his actions.
He observed that under Section 114 of the Armed Forces Act, military personnel fall under criminal liability for civil offences, such as obstructing a public officer in carrying out his/her legal duties. “The worrying aspect is that this is a Nigerian military officer who decided to challenge civil authority, which is a dangerous trend that must not be encouraged in our society,” said Hon.
