Judiciary powers being undermined by DSS senseless display at court premises-Ubani

Human rights lawyer, Barrister Monday Onyeakachi Ubani, says the Department of State Security (DSS) has undermined the powers of the judiciary with the lawless and senseless display of power by its officer at a Federal High court, Lagos on Tuesday.

Recall that Justice Nichola Oweibo, in granting Emefiele’s bail in the sum of N20 million and one surety, ruled that the NCoS should take custody of the defendant pending the perfection of his bail.

But in what looks like a gangster-like abduction, hooded operatives of the DSS refused to allow officials of the NCoS to take Emefiele into custody. In an attempt to have their way, the DSS agents ruffled and tore the shirt buttons of the head of the NCoS team at the High Court.

Ubani in a statement, said:  “It is obvious that our judiciary and its powers are being undermined by such lawless and senseless displays of power by the officers of DSS at the court premises. The legal profession cannot afford to be silent when everything about it is threatened or destroyed by lawless government officials. It is dangerous!

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Ubani said while he appreciates the promptness of the NBA’s intervention in condemning the disgraceful display, he however, said a straightforward condemnation of the party in the wrong, which is the DSS, would have been appropriate.

Ubani, in his intervention, said:  “It is obvious that our judiciary and its powers are being undermined by such lawless and senseless displays of power by the officers of DSS at the court premises. The legal profession cannot afford to be silent when everything about it is threatened or destroyed by lawless government officials. It is dangerous!

“The truth is that the order of the court was explicit on who should take custody of the Defendant, in this case, Mr Emefiele, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. It is appalling that DSS which had him for over a month was eager to take him back into custody despite the express order of the court.

“What more offences are they desiring to investigate which they did not complete for over one month they had him in their custody? Were they, not the ones that came up with the miserable charge of illegal possession of firearms after his long detention? It is now they want to investigate the alleged funding of terrorism. We joke too much in this country!

“Who actually should be blamed in the circumstance, DSS or Correctional Centre? If we take into account that before yesterday there had been several court orders that directed the release or arraignment of Mr Emefiele which were observed in breach by DSS, we cannot but lay appropriate blame on the doorstep of the culprit, which is DSS. No prevarications gentlemen!

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“The attitude and exercise of power by DSS under this new dispensation need to be interrogated. Their penchant and impunity in disobeying court orders need the bold condemnation of the Nigerian Bar Association to nip their contempt for the rule of law in the bud. We do not need to patronise them at all as they are hell-bent on destroying the rule of law and by extension our hard-won democracy.

“I believe that President Tinubu’s government owes Nigerians the onerous responsibility to toe the line of rule of law and obedience to court orders under his government.

“If he chooses to go the way of other regimes in Nigeria, let him be rest assured that patriotic-minded Nigerians will resist him and his planned autocratic regime. The citizens have suffered enough and are ready to take their destinies into their hands this time around.  A word is enough.”