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From TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
The Niger Delta Rights Advocates (NDRA) has called for the application of rule of law in the prosecution of the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
NDRA, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Bright Ngolo, noted the infractions on the rights of Emefiele, following the manner operatives of Department of State Security (DSS) arrested him recently.
The group advised that the citizens should not be made to live in a nation where the rights of the people are trampled and threatened indiscriminately.
He said: “We (NDRA) are constrained to draw public attention to the obvious infraction on the rights of Dr. Godwin Emefiele, who until Friday, was the CBN Governor.
“The reports we have is that operatives of the DSS stormed the Lagos residence of Dr. Godwin Emefiele at the dead of the night (2am), blindfolded him and forcefully took him away in a manner suggestive of abduction.
“As rights advocates, we should not live in a nation where all manner of gestapo style arrests will be made in the name of getting people to question them or account for perceived misdeeds. It is clear that Mr. Emefiele could be invited for questioning at any time since no Nigerian is above the law.
“However, we are also concerned with the fact that there is a judgement by a competent court in suit no GAR/CV/41/2022 instituted by the Incorporated Trustees of the Forum for Accountability and Good Leadership wherein Justice M.A. Hassan barred the DSS, Attorney General of the Federation, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria, who are listed as first, second and fifth defendants from arresting Godwin Emefiele.”
NDRA, however, called for the authorities to respect the rule of law by challenging and setting aside Justice Hassan’s judgement, which has nothing to do with his removal from office as CBN Governor.
He said: “The NDRA wants the due process of the law to be followed in pursuing the Emefiele case rather than painting the picture of repression of the rule of law.
“We recall that some State governments, particularly Rivers State, has had a judgement from the court that barred the EFCC from arresting officials of the state government, and uptil date, the EFCC has failed to vacate that judgement and has equally failed to investigate the monumental regime of entrenched fraud in the running of the state in the past eight years.
“We call on all agencies of government, therefore, to respect the rule of law as a confirmation that democracy has taken root in our country and no institution or agency of government can just wake up and overreach its bounds.”
