By Emmanuel Ogebe Esq
I received with elation the delightful news that Governor Fintiri of Adamawa exercised his prerogative of Mercy in favour of my death row client Sunday Jackson ending one of the worst miscarriages of justice in Nigerian history.
Sunday Jackson is the most famous Nigerian on death row today. His also a symbol of everything wrong with Nigeria. A country that cannot protect its citizens from mass murder, condemned to death a citizen who protected himself from murder.
Nigerians provide water and electricity for themselves, pay failed governments borehole and generator taxes.
We thank the State, Federal and U.S. and UK governments for the attention paid to this case. We thank his Royal Majesty the Hama Bachama for his fatherly intervention.
We of course thank Ardo Bawuro father of the deceased herdsman for his forgiveness, graciousness and magnanimity.
I thank the Justice for Jackson Joint Freedom Taskforce (JJJFT) made up of regular people from all walks of life who volunteered their time and energy to advocate for Jackson in U.S. UK and Nigeria.
I thank Hon Justice Helen Ogunwumiju whose brilliant dissent exposed the grave injustice that robbed Jackson of his life and provided a substantial plank for his pardon for deeming him a “proper candidate.” A wise Daniel indeed came to judgment.
However the freedom of Jackson is only the beginning and not the end.
The odious and repugnant precedent that goes against natural law, moral and substantial justice must be overturned. It defies science, logic and human nature. It is an advance mass death sentence on the Nigerian citizen in favour of foreign killers.
Jackson should never have spent a day in prison much less 11 years. He’s lost everything – his wife who remarried and then died and his home destroyed in a devastating Fulani attack. He’s lost 11 years of Fatherhood of a daughter he didn’t know existed till she was six and she has lost having a father for all her life.
The Supreme Court should review that terrible judgement.
The National Assembly should revise our laws to be clear on self defense.
Jackson should be compensated for his losses.
Ardo Bawuro should be honored for disproving the negative stereotype that Fulanis are murderous, vindictive and unforgiving souls as hyped even by their prominent sons.
The state saved him from death at the hands of the state.
God bless Adamawa state and God have mercy on Nigeria.
