Human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), has disagreed with a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Alfa Belgore, for saying President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to bestow posthumus awards on Chief MKO Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) was illegal.
Falana, in a statement on Thursday, said although paragraph 2 of the National Honours Act presupposed that a person who might be bestowed with a national award must receive it in person, paragraph 3 gave the President the power to give it to a representative of the beneficiary. The senior advocate, who was an active participant in the struggle for the actualisation of the June 12 mandate, therefore, faulted the retired judge for taking the law out of context. Read more