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American Court --- Crimes committed in Nigeria ??? by
The Serving of a summon, I thought that was what the bailiffs do. Now I know different, Nigerians are now authorized by law in the United States, to serve court papers on one another, only in the United States of America. I was very appalled when I learned through the article of Laolu Akande that this in fact actually took place. The worst that I had expected was some kind of demonstrations outside of the premises where the lecture was to take place. It did not matter to me if CSU wants to honor every dictator in Africa. What bothered me was that Mr. Attention seeker, Ali Mazrui Ph.D left out one African dictator of all time, Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, is Idi not qualified as a warrior type Head of State. I would have preferred that no summons were served on anyone only because it will not serve any useful purpose. Maybe I am wrong, now it has clearly shown that the CSU organizers are not to be taken seriously. I am not completely sure why a US court will issue a summon to be served on visiting foreign dignitaries except that it wanted to create confusion and embarrass all the parties involved. I am not sure that serving IBB and the rest of the group with court papers on US soil is the way to go. There are so many reasons for this: 1) IBB and the group are not citizens of America, (2) Their alleged offenses were committed outside of the United States, and Nigeria is not part of the United States, at least not yet. (3) No US citizen suffered any harms due to the behaviors and actions or policies of IBB and company. For the reasons which are outlined above the US court may in fact not have a jurisdiction over an alleged crime or crimes which took place in far away Nigeria and committed by Nigerian citizens against Nigerian citizens. I am confident that even one of those $25 per appearance lawyer at the traffic court in Chicago, IL., could easily have all of these charges withdrawn and dismissed very easily. Because it is very clear that no US court is competent to hear such cases. Are Nigerians not resident in the U.S., and who are clearly not citizens of the United States now under the US Legal Systems ? I need someone with a very keen and excellent legal mind to help me out here. The answer to this should be without a doubt, NO. I have resisted from publishing this article, and then I read sometimes ago, that a Detroit court actually ruled on this matter. I laughed so much, my wife thought that I must have discovered something strange and new. She was right. I found it rather strange that a US court will waste its time adjudicating on a matter which clearly it has no business dealing with. Is the US Courts Systems now the world court ? The last time I checked, the World Court still presides in the Hague and not Washington D.C. The whole thing is strange and new to me. It sends a smirk of mockery at worst and arrogance at best. The truth is, if the defenders were to be American citizens who have committed crimes against the government and the peoples of Nigeria – No American Court will even give it a time in a day. But since we have these Africans who supposedly lack common decency to respect the citizens of their own country, why not further humiliate them. If the Detroit Court has achieved anything, it has definitely brought some attention to itself. It will in the end allow General Abubakar Abdusalami to spend some of that money to feed those fat, do nothing American Lawyers. If I were him, I will not waste my money on over priced American Lawyers I will simply honor the summon and defend myself on the basis that the American court may not have the power to hear the case and as a result should either dismiss it or refer it to a competent court in Nigeria for hearing since the offense occurred in Nigeria and not in the USA. I am not quite sure what is there to gain here by either parties. This is not to say that these people were not injured by the policies and decisions of these Nigerian Strong men. The point here is that this group will not only lose in any American Court, they will also lose the psychological battle. Their only gain, they have succeeded in bringing attention to their plights. If they really want to fight and win for democracy, they must do it in Nigeria. This article was started some months ago, in February --- Please excuse the time lapse. Michael O. Folorunso |