DSS Wants Democracy Destroyed—Says HURIWA

"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 dishonor and disrespect of the constitutionallyguaranteed judicial powers of Courts of Nigeria and the pattern of illegally using psychological and physical torture on detainees of high political values,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 ".

This was the conclusion drawn by a Pro-Democracy Non Governmental organisation- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA ) in reaction to the serial failure and obstinate 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 continuous detention under dehumanising condition by DSS of Mr Nnamdi Kanu since over three months after he was picked up on his return from the United Kingdom where he is based and where the Radio Biafra operates from.

HURIWA said the rumour making rounds that DSS plans to rearraign Mr Nnamdi Kanu for another framed up charges of committing 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 said the President who has sworn an oath of office to abide with the provisions of the Constitution can be impeached for looking the other way whilst security officials he picked and appointed into high offices wantonly violate extant and substantive binding orders of Courts just as HURIWA reminded President Muhammadu Buhari that in Nigeria the Court is the institution that legitimately exercises the judicial powers of the federation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The group has therefore warned President Muhammadu Buhari to thread 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 his back just as the rider could easily become easy prey to the hungry Tiger ".

In a statement signed jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said the Department of State Service is in gross breach of the law by acting ultra vires in keeping back in the cell Mr Nnamdi Kanu who by the express judicial Order of the Federal High Court ought and must be released IMMEDIATELY AND UNCONDITIONALLY. The attitudes of the DSS is primitive, unlawful, unconstitutional, primitive and totally reprehensible and therefore stands absolutely condemned.

"Does the Director General of the Department for State Security Services require another professional training (having cone from a rustic post retirement background before he was resurrected by his kinsman President Muhammadu 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".