A non-governmental pro-democracy group has called on the National Assembly to prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to dismiss the Katsina-born Director-General (DG) of the Department of State Services (DSS), Alhaji Lawal Musa Daura, for wantonly disobeying injunctive and mandatory orders of courts of competent jurisdiction; an act which it said undermines the Constitution as the supreme law of Nigeria and poses a threat to the Rule of Law and constitutional democracy.
The group affirmed that the security chief must comply with binding court orders; should not choose which of them to enforce, adding that it is unconstitutional and that the DG of DSS must be condemned by all and sundry; even as it called on the Nigerian Bar Association, the Chief Justice of the Federation and the organised pro-democracy and civil society community to unanimously condemn the director-general of the DSS
The Human Right Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), stated this in a media statement jointly signed by its National Co-ordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and Media Affairs Officer, Miss Zainab Yusuf, in reaction to the serial failure and refusal by the DSS to release Mr Nnamdi Kanu from the dungeon, even after he was last Thursday freed by the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, which aptly described as illegal the continued detention by DSS of Mr Kanu, since over three months, after he was picked up on his return from the United Kingdom where he is based and from where the Radio Biafra operates.
The pro-democracy group averred: “The persistent penchant by the hierarchy of the Department for State Security Services (DSS) to flagrantly disrespect binding orders of competent Courts of Jurisdiction in Nigeria is a sinister plot by the armed security agency to imperil democracy and pave way for military type dictatorship. Going by recent unpleasant record of total dishonour and disrespect of the constitutionally guaranteed judicial powers of courts of Nigeria, and the pattern of illegally using psychological and physical torture on detainees of high political value, the current management of DSS are surely on a dangerous highway of perfidy, with intents to imperil our current gains at enthroning democracy and rule of law.”
HURIWA opined: “Does the Director-General of the Department for State Security Services require another professional training (having come from a rustic post-retirement background before he was resurrected by President Buhari) to know that under the Constitution, which is the supreme law of Nigeria, the security agency must comply with binding court orders and can’t pick and choose which of the court orders to enforce? This unconstitutional conduct of the DG of DSS must be condemned by all and sundry and the National Assembly must immediately ask President Muhammadu Buhari to dismiss, without further delay, the Katsina-born DG of DSS, Alhaji Lawal Musa Daura, for wantonly disobeying court injunctive and mandatory orders; and for seeking actively to undermine the Rule of Law and constitutional democracy.
“We wholeheartedly call on the Nigerian Bar Association; the Chief Justice of the Federation of Nigeria and the organised and not-yet-contaminated and politicised pro-democracy and civil society community, to unanimously condemn the Director-General of the Department for State Security Services for his notorious penchant and his self-destructive attributes to flagrantly deploy military tactics to deal with perceived political opponents of his paymaster and voices of dissent. The DSS must comply with the court order and release Nnamdi Kanu, unless the hierarchy is on a national suicide mission of destroying Nigeria’s democracy to pave way for the emergence of a totalitarian dictator, similar to the Burundian or Rwandan anti-democracy models.”
It noted that unofficial news reports that the DSS plans to re-arraign Mr Kanu, for another framed-up charges of treason, “is in itself a treasonable felony on the part of DG of DSS because, to cumulatively violate court orders and turn back to institute separate matter against a citizen who has previously been freed amounts to high treason and an attempt to destroy democracy in Nigeria which must be punished, if Nigeria is to end the vicious circle of impunity.”
HURIWA reminded the President, who has sworn to an oath of office to abide with the provisions of the Constitution, that it is an impeachable offence for him to look the other way, while security officials he appointed into high offices wantonly violate extant and substantive binding orders of courts. “In Nigeria, the court is the institution that legitimately exercises the judicial powers of the federation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” The group therefore warned President Buhari to tread cautiously in his current pastime of permitting armed security officials to openly and persistently disobey court orders, which are not favourable to the Presidency. Mr President should be careful the way he rides on the back of the tiger in jubilant mood; because the tiger may not always remain loyal and subservient all of the time with the man riding on top of its back, just as the rider could easily become easy prey to the hungry tiger.
The statement regretted that the Department of State Service breached the law and acted ultra vires, “by keeping back in cell, Mr Kanu, who by the express judicial order of the Federal High Court, Abuja ought to have been released immediately and unconditionally. The attitude of the DSS is primitive, unlawful, unconstitutional, primitive and totally reprehensible and, therefore, stands absolutely condemned.”
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