Early this year, the Zazzu crooner, singer, Portable, had his properties marked for demolition by the Ogun State Government. He was in fact arraigned for resisting the officers from Physical Planning. However, he recently uploaded a video showing that he had obtained the necessary permits, and his properties were never demolished. In Ogun State, as in other states, violators or building law have their properties marked all the time. Some are demolished, some are not: the difference lies in the willingness by the property owners to mend their ways by obtaining the necessary approvals and correcting whatever the government wants corrected. That is clearly the practice in Ogun State. But some people apparently think that they are above the law, and that brings us to the case of Gbenga Daniel, the senator representing Ogun East in the National Assembly.
In an acerbic, demonstrably silly piece titled “Dapo Abiodun’s illegal and vindictive fishing expedition to victimize OGD,” one Dr Ope Banwo who pompously loads himself with the titles, “USA-Based Attorney (Attorney Admitted in New York and Nigeria Bars), Founder, Naija lives Matter and Mayor Of Fadeyi”, rehashes the brought-in-dead arguments of the camp of Gbenga Daniel, over his failure to comply with lawful government order and submit the building plan and approvals of his properties in Sagamu GRA for verification. For a resident of the United States where the law presumably knows no political affiliation, the irony in Banwo’s bolekaja piece riddled with legal faux pax, innuendos and vile abuse is indeed rich. A challenge to Banwo before another sentence: Can you stage the kind of stunt for which you are commending and enabling Gbenga Daniel in the United States where you reside? In its directive, the Ogun State Government gave an opportunity to those with irregularities in their papers to regularize them while offering a two-week window for compliance. But apparently, blind and raw hatred, the kind exhibited by Banwo towards Governor Dapo Abiodun in his bid to propitiate his (Banwo’s) tin god, is a disease.
Pray, when did the Ogun State Government ever ask Senator Daniel to prove his innocence? The point simply is that the distinguished senator claims that he has permits for his buildings in Sagamu GRA and the Ogun State Government has called on him to provide evidence of those permits. In Nigeria, it is the person who claims the presence of a thing that must prove it – even if he is a defendant. In Omisore & anor v. Aregbesola (2015) LPELR-24803(SC), the Supreme Court adumbrated this principle as follows: “This maxim, which developed from the old Roman jurisprudence, was expressed thus: incumbit probation qui dicit, non qui negat. It comes to this – the burden of proving a fact rests on the party who asserts the affirmative of the issue and not upon the party who denies it – for a negative is usually incapable of proof. Section 131(1&2) of the Evidence Act 2011 provides that: “Whoever desires any court to give judgment as to any legal right or liability dependent on the existence of facts which he asserts shall prove that those facts exist.” It is incredible that an attorney does not realise that the burden of proving the existence of the permits in question rests on no one but Senator Daniel.
If the former governor claims to have permits for the buildings in question, the onus is on him to prove it. As he himself has admitted, there is more than one property is in dispute, and some are recent developments. But the allegation that the Abiodun government is retroactively applying the law does not even arise. Here is what section 72(3) of the Ogun State Physical Planning Law says: “An enforcement notice may be issued under subsection(1) of this Section, notwithstanding that the unauthorized development, renovation, alteration, repair, addition, or violation took place before the commencement of this Law.” Unless set aside by a court with the requisite authority, this is the law in Ogun State. Surely, a lawyer of Dr Banwo’s esteemed status would be willing to grant the Ogun State Government the right to enforce its own laws? Or is law enforcement now anathema because it is almighty Daniel, who built the buildings in question during his time in Government House and who brooked no dissidence from any quarters, that is involved? Is there one law for Daniel and another one for others?
The idea that a state governor who hurriedly completed some houses in breach of the law cannot be questioned is completely strange, and stranger still coming from a lawyer. Surely the hottest part of hell is reserved for those who, for partisan reasons, stand truth and logic on its head. Banwo even cites a certain principle called the presumption of regularity. The idea is that since Gbenga Daniel was governor, his actions must be presumed legal. In other words, it must be assumed that he had the requisite papers after allegedly grabbing government land. This sounds like hero worship and dictatorship dressed in legal robes. If Dr Banwo is right, then there is no reason to ask a former state chief executive to submit any papers. Then why even question a former governor about anything at all? This is certainly a slippery slope to hell by Dr Banwo, who thinks that a presumption of innocence is the same thing as proof of innocence. I hold that a presumption of innocence is only an assumption that may be proved or disproved. In any case, if Senator Daniel had simply abided by the lawful order given by the Ogun State Government to present his papers for verification, there would have been absolutely no need for Dr Banwo to expose himself so terribly as a partisan hack with a rich resume.
