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A group of lawyers under the platform of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy (LDD) have condemned the endless use of fabricated charges by the Department of State Security Services (DSS) to continue to hold Emefiele in illegal detention, especially the new charges of breach of contract procurement law.
The lawyers, therefore, called on President Bola Tinubu to immediately sack the Director General of the Department of State Security Service (DSS), Yusuf Magaji Bichi, for dragging the agency into a matter outside its jurisdiction.
“Mallam Bichi should be sacked now for pioneering the affairs of the organisation in a manner that appears to have lost focus of its statutory mandate.”
The lawyers’ position was informed by the involvement of the DSS in the arrest and subsequent charges preferred against the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
While describing the fresh 20-count charge against Emefiele as forum shopping and politically motivated, the lawyers wondered why the DSS should abandon their statutory mandate of internal security, to issues bordering on procurement of vehicles.
Spokesperson of the group, Ahmed Yusuf Tijani, who spoke to journalists after the aborted arraignment of the former CBN governor, equally called on president Tinubu to review the modus operandi of the DSS.
He said: “We are here to witness the arraignment of the suspended CBN governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele. You will recall that on July 25, 2023, we were in Lagos, at Ikoyi Federal High Court, where the DSS arraigned former CBN governor on a two-count charge bordering on illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
“We condemned that arraignment and, fortunately, the court granted bail to Emefiele, and you saw the show of shame that took place in court on that very day. We condemned both the arraignment and the charges, and we told you that the gun in question was a dane gun.
“I think they have gone back and looked at the charge they preferred against him, and they realised that they had goofed. Today, they wanted to arraign him on a 20-count bordering on procurement.
“It appears to us that the DSS has lost focus of its constitutional and statutory mandate. The DSS was established to handle matters that border on internal security -terrorism. Before now, they told us that Emefiele had cases to answer on matters that had to do with terrorism. We were expecting that the charges would reflect terrorism count charges.
“Surprisingly, what we saw were matters bordering on procurement. That he gave contracts for the award of Land Cruisers. This is a charade and making mockery of prosecution. We can’t take this. What the DSS is doing is forum shopping. This is an organisation that appears to us to have outlived its usefulness in this country. We call on President Bola Tinubu to review the modus operandi of the DSS. It appears that they have lost focus and, indeed, they have lost focus.
The group equally called on the newly appointed Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, to review the activities of the DSS.
“We watched him speak during his screening at the National Assembly; how he articulated his points on the justice sector, which included reforms, and how he condemned executive recklessness. We believe he can correctly fix the justice sector of the country. This is the time for him to act. The DSS is no longer the organisation that was formed at the time it was formed. It has derailed and lost focus, and we call on well meaning Nigerians to ensure that the DSS sticks to its mandate or be scrapped. This is our position.”
Another member of the group, Okere Kingdom, narrated how the DSS had, last December, framed Emefiele for financing terrorism and actions that undermined national security.
“It all started in December, when the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, refused to grant a black market injunction at the request of the DSS. This is purely a political vendetta,” he said.
He called on the DSS to live by example, by publicly publishing its audited account of the procurement of their operational vehicles.
