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Nigerian Government Mulls Appeal As Opposition Leader Goes Free
by Ade Obisesan
LAGOS (AFP) - The Nigerian government Friday reserved right of appeal after a court dismissed murder charges against an opposition leader accused of the deaths of more than 100 people.
Frederick Fasheun, leader of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) was freed Friday after prosecutors withdrew charges linking him to a wave of violence in Lagos last month.
Presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe told AFP the government respected the judicial system but would reserve the right to appeal after looking at the finding.
"We believe in our judicial system and their competency," he said. "But if we think that justice has not been fully done or that an error has been committed ... the federal government has the right to appeal," Okupe said.
He also dismissed a statement by Fasheun that the government did not have the power to ban the organization.
"Frederick Fasheun is not the government... The government has said it has banned the OPC, and as far as the government is concerned, the OPC remains banned," he said.
Earlier, acting Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution Grace Onyeabo told a Lagos court that no evidence had been found linking Fasheun with the violence in Lagos last month.
The government had blamed the unrest on the OPC.
"None of the statements in the case file made by the police ... and the public linked him with the incident under investigation," Onyeabo said in a statement, a copy of which was shown to AFP.
"There is no fact suggesting that Fasheun directed, counseled or in any way supported such activity," she said.
"Fasheun cannot be made liable for any of the offences for which he was charged," she added.
Speaking to journalists shortly after the case against him was dismissed, Fasheun said he had been vindicated.
"Justice has been done. I know I have committed no offence. My position has been vindicated," said Fasheun.
Another 36 people charged at the same time as Fasheun were remanded in custody to face charges of armed robbery during the looting that occurred amid the ethnic violence.
Fasheun and 41 others were on October 20th charged with murder, illegal possession of weapons and arson following four days of violence in which more than 100 people, mostly ethnic Hausa, were killed.
The OPC was founded in 1995 to press for greater autonomy for the Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria and has been behind a series of bloody ethnic clashes in the past 18 months.
Following unrest in the central city of Ilorin on October 14th, in which a police units led by a northern Hausa man killed six to nine OPC members, OPC supporters went on the rampage, attacking and killing more than 100 Hausas in Lagos.
The government reacted by announcing a ban on the OPC and said security agencies had been ordered to arrest its leaders.
Fasheun was charged separately on Wednesday in a court in Ilorin over the unrest which preceded the bloodbath in Lagos.
He was charged with criminal conspiracy, disturbing the public peace, inciting disturbance and possession of dangerous weapons, before he was released on bail.
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