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The DSS initials standing for Department of State Services, could have stood for anything but state services yesterday as the organization came in for serious knocks from well-meaning Nigerians for ignoring the pronouncement by Justice Ijeoma of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordering the immediate release from detention, of Mr. Omoyele Sowore, Convener of RevolutionNow, after meeting the bail conditions. Individuals and organization who tongue-lashed the security service for being disrespectful of the judiciary include the Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice President and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s Presidential candidate in the 2019 election, PDP and SERAP. In a statement personally signed and issued by him hours after DSS operatives stormed the Federal High Court precinct in at least three pickup trucks stormed in a Gestapo style and re-arrested Omoyele, he asked President Muhammadu Buhari to call the agency to order. He issued the statement Mr Omoyele Sowore, after Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu lambasted the agency for still holding on to him after he had met the bail condition. But shortly after she gave the judgement, DSS operatives invaded the hallowed the court and rearrested Sowore, amid scuffles and resistance put up by both lawyers and sympathizers.
Condemning the invasion Soyinka asked President Muhammadu Buhari to call the agency to order. The Nobel laureate likened the incident to what he called, “Lessons from the African Wild Dog.” According to him, disobedience leads to disobedience and the disobedience of the properly constituted orders would only lead to the disregard of the authority of other arms of civil society by the people. He advised the government to uphold and respect judicial institutions in order to prevent the present situation from degenerating into chaos. He also advised him to teach those he described as the “wild dogs of disobedience” some basic court manners.
In the same vein, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, said the invasion of the Federal High Court, Abuja, by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) yesterday is an indication that the country is sliding into dictatorship.
The PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the invasion is a vindication of its earlier stand that the country is no longer governed by democratic principles of rule or law and dictates of the constitution.
The opposition party called on well meaning Nigerians and the international community to call the Presidency to order before its actions derail our nation and trigger a breakdown of law and order in the land.
Also, former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Edo State, Osagie Obayuwana, yesterday, called on the National Assembly to repeal the law setting up the Department of State Security (DSS) saying it has outlived its usefulness. He made the appeal while speaking on the topic: “Judge’s rule- what it entails and to what extent does it apply” to mark the 2019 World Human Rights Week organised by the Edo Civil Society Organizations (EDOCSO) in Benin City.
According to him, it goes beyond the reshuffling of the leadership of the DSS. “The entire composition of DSS from the top to the bottom, having shown itself to be unworthy, [should] be disbanded.
“There is a precedence for this. We once had an outfit called the NSO. The SSS or DSS as they now call themselves, have completely outlived its usefulness. It is beyond redemption. It has to be dissolved immediately.
“We call on the Nigerian people and the Nigerian Bar Association to insist on this; and the National Assembly to side with the Nigeria people, to repeal the law that established the DSS, sack all its personnel and by legislation, lay the foundation for a new security system agency focused on the protection of the wellbeing of all Nigerians as opposed to the imagined interest of few office holders in Nigeria.”
