By Bimbo Ogunnaike
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to, with immediate effect, dismiss the Director General of Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Bichi over the re-arrest the Publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, in a Federal High Court courtroom last Friday
The call came following the attempt made by the Spokesperson of the Department of State Services, DSS, to exculpate his agency from what happened at the courtroom.
HURIWA, in a statement signed and issued on Monday by its national Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko described the DSS action as “abominable defecation of the temple of justice.”
“This invasion of the Federal High Court just like the invasion of the National Assembly by 100 hooded armed security forces of the SSS and the invasion of the residences of Justices of the nation’s Supreme court and Federal High Court are symptomatic of the increasing desire of the administration to institute arbitrariness and anarchy and then to elevate impunity and official lawlessness to a state policy which will culminate in the ultimate collapse of constitutional democracy and the emergence of full dictatorship,”HURIWA’s statement said,
The association said that there is no justifiable reason under the sun for an institution created by statute like the State Security Services or the DSS to actively invade the sacred sanctum of the Federal High Court and employ brute force to arbitrarily re-arrest two Nigerian citizens who are already on bail granted to them by the competent court of law.
“This attempt to paint black what is white and to deny an event recorded on video and circulated all over the World will present the government as a bunch of people who are in the business of canonizing falsehoods and adopting naked lies as the hallmarks of the current administration. This is a serious disservice to the Nigerian State and this crude tendencies will harm the international image of the Country for a long time to come,” the statement added.
HURIWA blamed the Buhari-led administration for also seeking to adopt subterfuge and deception to try to hoodwink people to accept the jaundiced explanation for the brazen display of executive and security rascality by the DSS right within the premises of the Federal High Court of Justice.
The association maintained that the action of the DSS officials can not possibly find any rational, empirical and constitutional support since that action amounted to a gross disrespect for the sanctity of the Judiciary which in Section 6 has the Judicial powers of the federation and section 36(5) of the Nigerian Constitution has unambiguously provided that all accused persons are totally innocent in the eyes of the law until a contrary determination has been reached by the competent Court of law and not the court of jesters or political clowns in the Nigerian Presidency.
“It is comical and irrational that the spokesman of the President of a Constitutional democracy in the 21st century can be seen arguing that a citizen who has already been granted bail by the Court of competent jurisdiction can be re-arrested over very nebulous and incoherent reasons that finds no justification in law and for which same reasons framed as criminal charges are already before the Court of law and during which pendency the presiding judge her Lordship Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu had graciously exercised her constitution power of discretion and granted bail to the accused thereby rendering his second arrest as an exercise in erection of double jeopardy,” it added.
HURIWA said it is a shame that the current administration has completely rubbished all major institutions that the constitution has put in place to strengthen the practice of democracy in Nigeria just as the Rights group blamed the unbridled quest by the President for totalitarianism and dictatorial powers for the active campaign of destabilization of the Judiciary as is being carried out by the State Security Services.
The association also urged Buhari to desist from abusing his powers and office because political power is transient.
