You don’t hang a suspect on the pages of newspaper -Former Minister tells Sagay

The immediate past Minister of National Planning Commission, Dr. Abubakar Olanrewaju Sulaiman, on Saturday took a swipe at the Chairman of the Presidential anti-corruption committee, Professor Itse Sagay and Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed over their recent attack on former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The former Minister, said the statement credited to legal jurist, Prof. Itse Sagay on the 23rd December, 2015 that tends to vilify President Jonathan on the ongoing arms scam is not only unfortunate but unprofessional.

His words: ”One should expect the respected learned scholar to know that you don’t hang a suspect on the pages of newspaper or via social media until he or she is found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.

“Even where the learned jurist feel passionate of such a sensitive but sensational issue, he should know the right route to the villa rather than taking such prejudicial position. It is high time our legal luminaries confined
themselves to the noble enclave of their profession than toeing the path of some mischief politicians whose main occupation is perceiving every matter from the point of sheer politics and propaganda.”

Continuing, he said: ”Nigeria awaits the report of Sagay committee on how best to fight corruption in our polity. And we pray that when the report of his Committee finally comes out, it will reflect and incorporate the noble principles of rule of law, fair hearing and impartiality so as to meet the irreducible minimum standard expected in matters of this nature. We also pray that it may not end up dashing, rather than raising the hopes of average Nigerian in the vintage APC fashion, as with most things these days.”