A human rights and good governance advocacy initiative – Make A Difference (MAD) has condemned the invasion of personnel of the Department of State Services ((DSS) for the “gestapo invasion and desecration of the court” in a bid to re-arrest Omoyele Sowore who is on bail.
In a statement by the Advocacy and Communication Director of MAD, Mr. Lemmy Ughegbe, the initiative also called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria to rise to the challenge of protecting the sanctity of the court by ordering judges to boycott all cases instituted by the DSS in all courts nationwide.
Ughegbe said the action of the DSS in court Friday surpassed the draconianism of the darkest days of Nigeria’s military rule.
The statement reads: “The gestapo invasion and desecration of the court by agents of the Department of State Security (DSS) is a sad and debasing testament of how deeply Nigeria and the people have retrogressed into darker ages worse even than the military era.
” I am gutted that the sanctuary of the court would be desecrated by those who should strive to protect it. This is depressing.
“And let me hasten to make the point that this affront is not about Sowore, but about the liberty of citizens and their constitutional right to dignity and presumed innocence.
“When law officers and security agents act with such barbaric impudence and insufferable arrogance as though they cannot be called to question for their action, one cannot but agree with those who say Nigeria is a zoo and we are hyenas, baboons and sundry animals in it.
“I challenge the Chief Justice of Nigeria to order the courts nationwide to suspend hearings of all cases brought by DSS until the deviant organisation purges itself of its sins and complies with all orders of courts issued against it.
“Should the CJN be slow and reluctant in taking necessary steps to protect the temple of justice, he would only be lending more credence to groundswell of public opinion that he was appointed controversially to oversee the demise of the bastion of hope in every democracy.
“And we await the reaction of President Muhammadu Buhari whose credentials as a democrat has always been in doubt given his antecedence. The ball is in his court.”