Lawyers Protest Against Dss In Abuja
BEVERLY HILLS, October 31, (THEWILL) – Thousands of lawyers, in protest of the alleged continued disobedience of court orders by the Department of State Security, DSS, have taken to the streets, in Abuja, calling on the DSS to end its intimidation and tyranny.
The lawyers, on Monday , stormed the Federal High Court Headquarters in Maitama, the Attorney General's office, National Human Rights Commission and the Three Arms Zone, which hosts the Aso Rock presidential villa, Supreme Court and the National Assembly.
The legal practitioners, under the aegis of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy and Citizens for Good Governance, expressed dissatisfaction with the call for the judges accused of corruption to step down.
They insisted that the accused judges must not step down due to the investigations and called on judiciary workers, in the country, to go on strike until the DSS obeys all pending judgments.
Ikenga Ugochinyere, convener of the two groups, said it was not right for the judges to do so without evidence of misdeeds as he described the call made by Abubakar Mahmoud, President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), as “prejudicial to the innocence of the judges.”
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“The call for the arrested judges to step aside when there is no proof of evidence linking them to the alleged crime is baseless and at best a move to cement kokoama democracy.
“That is why we view the call by the president of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) after a private visit to the presidential villa as prejudicial to the innocence of the judges and contrary to the 2014 revised judicial discipline regulations formulated by the National Judicial Council (NJC) pursuant to section 160 of the 1999 constitution as amended.
“The unilateral call by Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) asking the judges to step aside without weighing the limitations and the possibility of an overbearing executive using the same loophole to get at other judges not willing to dance to their tune is unacceptable, hasty and counter-productive.
“We still stand on the initial declaration of emergency in the judiciary by NBA and reject the call for judges to step aside.
“Justice and morality cannot be seen from the eyes of one man but through the law.
“We cannot return to the dark ages when citizens go to work without knowing if they will ever come back to their families, were fear is instilled in us that non obedience to the men on the high table will earn you the dark corners of the detention wall, an era where by the time we leave here our houses would have been raided and many of us taken away to be charged even for imaginary treason and terrorism just because we spoke out.
“No society can be built on lawlessness. In a loud voice, we say the attack on the judges who ruled against DSS and government interest was not a fight against corruption but a failed move to whip the courageous judges into line like school children.”
Story by Oputah David