ABUJA – A Constitutional Lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay, said on Friday the Federal Government did not require declaration of war to tackle insurgency and terrorism in the North-East.
Sagay told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) by telephone from Lagos that the existing state of emergency in some states in the North-East was a sufficient measure to give the insurgents a run for their money.
“There is nothing preventing the President from exercising all the powers he has in terms of fighting the war against the Boko Haram.
“He doesn’t need to declare a state of war to do that. He can use every weapon, air force, artillery, any type of bombs, anything,” he said.
According to him, Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) gives the President the powers to deploy every military might against any threat to the country’s security.
He said further said that if the President should go ahead to declare a war, it would disrupt the 2015 general elections.
“Emergency is different from the issue of war in the sense that it is a section which empowers exceptional military and state/federal activity in any part of the country.
“So, Section 305 is about extra power to deal with the situation which demands extra state power in order to resolve it and bring it to normalcy.
“But when you declare a state of war it relates to actual fighting, military activity in which certain rules and obligations come into play.
“Things like how to take prisoners of war, what type of weapons you can use, how to treat civilian population, all these things come into play when you declare a state of war.
“It could have an effect if the war being declared is ongoing, making it physically impossible to hold free, fair and credible elections.
“Elections in such an area will be postponed for six months at a time until the crisis there has been brought down to a level that proper elections can be held,’’ he said.
Sagay further pointed out that the federal government could not engage in a war with Boko Haram.
He explained that war could only be declared when a country is fighting another country and not an internal enemy. (NAN)
