BEVERLY HILLS, October 09, (THEWILL) – The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to order the release of the judges arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) and declared a state of emergency in the judiciary over the midnight arrests of some judicial officers.
NBA President, Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN), at a press conference in Lagos on the development demanded the immediate release of the judges unconditionally and warned the Federal Government of ‘grave consequences’ should the demands not be met.
“I want to, on behalf of the Bar Association, make the very following clear and unequivocal demands: we demand the immediate, unconditional release of all the judges abducted from about 9pm Friday,” he said.
“The release must be done immediately and without any conditions. Two, we demand that the Department of State Services (DSS) should limit itself to its statutory and constitutional responsibilities.”
“It’s not the responsibility of the DSS to perform duties meant for the police and other agencies of the state.”
“I want to emphasise again that we’re not under military rule and we cannot accept this Gestapo style of operations.”
“We therefore call on President Muhamadu Buhari to immediately call all the state security agencies to order and to respect the rule of law and respect due process.”
“Any issues affecting judicial officers, there are established processes and procedures for handling them and we demand that these constitutional processes must be obeyed.”
“Given the unfolding nature of the events and the seriousness of the situation, the NBA hereby declares a state of emergency as it affects the affairs of the judiciary.”
“I hereby constitute a crisis management team comprising all past presidents and general secretaries of the Bar association.”
“I’ll be meeting with the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) tonight or tomorrow.”
“There’ll be consequences should these demands not be met. We’ll be consulting and seeking more information. It’s an ongoing situation. We want our colleagues to respect the association’s stand.”
“It suffices to say that these developments are unacceptable and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms.”
At the briefing were former NBA Presidents Augustine Alegeh (SAN), Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), Joseph Daudu (SAN), Barr Leaders Yusuf Ali (SAN), former NBA General Secretary Dele Adesina (SAN), Prof Kayinsola Ajayi (SAN), Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), NBA Vice President Onyekachi Ubani, among others.
THEWILL recalls that the DSS had raided the homes of two Supreme Court Justices, Justices Sylvester Ngwuta and Inyang Okoro, two Federal High Court judges, and High Court Judges of Gombe and Rivers on allegations of corruption.
Story by David Oputah
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