July 17, (THEWILL) – A consortium of lawyers numbering about 60 have approached a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to commence committal to prison proceedings against the Director General of the Directorate of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Bichi, over alleged violation of multiple judgments and orders of court directing the release of Godwin Emefiele, the suspended Central Bank Governor (CBN), from custody.
The lawyers, led by Maxwell Opara and Ahmed Tijani, in a motion filed on Monday, before the court for the issuing of Form 48 and Form 49, asked the court to commit the DSS DG to prison until he purges himself of the contempt.
They said by the judgments and orders of Justice M.A. Hassan, Justice Hamza Muazu and Justice Bello Kawu, the DG DSS ought to have released Emefiele from detention.
In the affidavit in support of the application, the lawyers deposed to the fact Justice M.A. Hassan restrained the respondents in that suit, particularly, the DSS from arresting, detaining, or interrogating Emefiele for offences connected to terrorism financing, money laundering, round tripping, financial crimes of national security dimension, and among others.
They argued that despite the orders of Justice Hassan, the DSS still went ahead to arrest and detain Emefiele.
Addressing newsmen shortly after filing their processes at the registry of the court, Opara said the group was ready to ensure that the DSS DG is sent to prison to serve as a deterrent to other heads of security agencies and top government officials that contempt of court and gross abuse of their offices for personal vendetta will no longer be tolerated.
Meanwhile, the lawyers have called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately relieve Bichi of his appointment as DSS DG for having obviously misled the President that Emefiele had committed heinous crimes against the State only for him to now file a charge of possession of a validly registered pump action rifle against him.
“Is it not clear enough to Nigerians that the SSS is persecuting Mr. Emefiele if after holding him for 5 weeks they can only file a ridiculous charge of possessing a validly registered pump action gun?
“If possessing a validly registered pump action gun is a crime worthy of being held in perpetuity, what has the SSS done to the person threatening Nigerians from a particular section of the country with an assault rifle? This clearly shows the travail of Mr. Emefiele is more for political reasons than for any other,” Opara said.
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