International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) has decried last Friday’s late night invasion and abduction by the DSS of some eminent Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the Court of Appeal as well as Judges of the Federal High Court, expressing shock that mainstream Civil Society Orgnisation (CSO) that aided the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari have maintained a deafening silence in the face of dictatorship.

In a statement issued this Monday in Onitsha by Intersociety Board Chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi; Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Programme, Obianuju Igboeli, and Head, Democracy & Good Governance Programme, Chinwe Umeche, the group said it was saddened by what it described as “the ignoble roles of Nigeria’s leading CSOs and social egg-heads in setting the country’s democracy on fire leading to its present socio-political quandary (i.e. state of uncertainty) that has seemingly reached an intractable stage.

“In other words,” it also said, “the makers of dictatorship afflicting Nigeria today are the mainstream CSOs under reference. The referenced mainstream CSOs got their hands soiled and conscience mortgaged unpardonably to the extent that many of them have frustratingly adopted conspiracy of silence under the Buhari’s demo-dictatorship while others choose to speak defensively in favour of Buhari’s dictatorial policies and actions through behind the scene or third parties or in the open.

“Attempts made of late by these conscienceless and shackled CSOs to regurgitate or reprobate have also failed and backfired on account of the fact that you cannot eat your cake and have it back. This is more so when their oilers know where and how to get them entrapped using EFCC and DSS, in the event they try to opt out of the inglorious and unholy agreement. It is clear to all and sundry that before their ignoble roles, the referenced CSOs were the soul and conscience of the country; voice of the voiceless and defenders of the defenceless.

“It is therefore morally wrong and a great disservice to our collective conscience to single out the immediate culprits (i.e. Buhari and DSS) in the senior judicial officers’ late night abduction saga, for condemnation, leaving behind those who created the ‘raging monster’ (i.e. referenced mainstream CSOs). The former and the latter, particularly the latter, must be reminded of their ‘immortal sins’ against the peoples of Nigeria, their liberties, constitution and democracy and repudiated at all times. As abominable as the referenced DSS conduct is, it is about time we put the records straight and call spade a spade. Those who brought Nigeria and Nigerians into this suicidal state must be exposed and shamed at all times.

“The raging regime atrocities of the Buhari Administration would not have found their roots in the history of the country again if Nigeria’s mainstream Civil Society Community of Southwest or Lagos extraction; oiled by some of the country’s leading tainted personalities have not conspired to impose the present demo-dictatorship on Nigerians. It is extremely important, therefore, to remind all and sundry that the present demo-dictatorship ravaging Nigeria is as a result of conspiratorial roles of Nigerian Mainstream CSOs (i.e. rights groups, rights activists, activist lawyers, activist professors, activist professional bodies and industrial unions), Mainstream Print and Audio-Visual Media and a handful of leading online media.

“It is therefore shocking and saddening that the messy situation that Nigeria finds itself today, which is getting messier day in day out, originates from the foregoing. It will forever remain an indisputable theory in the world of sciences that something can never be derived from nothing. “For no matter how brilliant a first school leaving certificate holder or secondary school attendee is, he or she can never conduct academic teachings in the university; and no matter how spiritually gifted a first school leaving certificate holder pastor is, he or she can never climb beyond the first step of a ladder in the Christendom. Where academic discrepancies exist at the altar of leadership, it is either enslavement or conflict or both with end-product being quackery or neo-quackery.

“It is a truism that Nigeria of present political circumstances has been set back to over one hundred years as a country. The protagonists and promoters of Lagos virus Politics have indeed dealt Nigeria and Nigerians a heavy blow. Apart from conspiring to impose Gen Muhammadu Buhari and demo-dictatorship on Nigerians; they have also transformed themselves into institutions and voices of dictatorship and lawlessness and become toothless dogs; barking without biting.

“It is no longer news that throughout the history of democracy in Nigeria, the DSS and its forefather: the NSO had never ceased to be the dark agent or number one enemy of democracy. Under the then NSO, Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (as he then was) extensively used it to scuttle the democratic process in late December 1983 and in 1984-85, he used it to violently hound and clamp scores of innocent citizens into months and years of detention without trial. Cases of disappearances and pre-trial/custodial killings and tortures; snowballing into unchecked regime atrocities were also rampant and untamed.

“The DSS as a leading agent of dictatorship can never act atrociously alone. It is President Muhammadu Buhari personified. By Section 2 (a) of the Security Agencies Act of 1986 or Nigerian Security Agencies Act Cap 74 of 2004, DSS is directly answerable to the President and carries out its functions according to the whims and caprices of Mr. President. Its sinister operation code: “orders from above”, expressly means orders from President Muhammadu Buhari. Such orders include late night invasion and abduction of citizens in their sleep including Justices of Supreme Court and Court of Appeal and Judges of Federal High Court; long detention without trial of citizens and grievous assault and disrespect to institutions and symbols of authority such as Gubernatorial seats of Akwa Ibom and Rivers States, etc.

“The excuses given by the DSS concerning its latest macabre conducts under reference are judicially atrocious and statutorily indefensible. As the service has always done, it again overstepped its statutory bounds riotously and abominably and engaged in conducts clearly outside its Establishment Act and the 1999 Constitution. The service seems to have earned notoriety in blackmail and criminal stigmatisation. Its authorities have also customised and professionalised falsehood, blackmail and propaganda; trailing behind the likes of Mr. Lai Mohammed.

“Just months ago, the Service, on the heels of wide condemnations trailing its invasion of the Akwa Ibom State Government House, addressed a similar press conference, claiming that it recovered huge sums of money in local and foreign currencies worth millions of naira and millions of dollars kept in the Akwa Ibom State Government Guest House. Till date nothing is heard of the bogus claims or whereabouts of the so called recovered currencies.

“Yet in its abominable late night invasion of the homes of serving Supreme Court Justices and other senior judicial officers, similar bogus claims took a center stage in its press briefing, riddled with fictions and cut-and-join clarifications. Our express questions to the authorities of the DSS and Gen Muhammadu Buhari following the above are: (1) Which law empowers the DSS to arrest, detain and prosecute corruption cases? (2) Where are the EFCC, ICPC and the Nigeria Police Force? (3) Who authorised such late night operations, invasion and breaking of the homes of serving Supreme Court Justices and other senior judicial officers? (4) Do corruption offenses carry capital punishments in Nigeria or what are their penalties on conviction? (5) Which law empowers the DSS to assault and reportedly injure a serving governor with constitutional immunity? (6) When has it become an operational routine in Nigeria for security agencies to raid people’s homes at the hours of the blue law or late night and abduct them in their sleep?

“Others are: (7) When did the law establishing the DSS change from gathering, processing and managing internal intelligence to law enforcement, corruption fighting and late night burglary or invasion? (8) What is the ethnic composition of the serving senior judicial officers abducted in the dead of the night and in their sleep? (9)Are Nigerian serving judges now fleeing terrorists, insurrectionists or coupists, kidnappers and armed robbers warranting such macabre attacks at such blue law hours? (10) Are they being hunted and haunted for political persecution on account of discharging their constitutional duties without fear or favour? (9) Was their late night abduction geared towards intimidating and silencing them for standing up against lawlessness of the DSS? (10) Are they being hunted and haunted because they refused to allow DSS detainees to be arraigned after long period of unconstitutional detention without charge or asked to go and obey all the previous orders given but flouted with reckless abandon? (12) If the senior judicial officers were abducted late night for corruption charges, have they been formally invited by EFCC, ICPC or the NPF? (13) Who did they corrupt or who corrupted them?

“It is time for every Nigerian citizen to stand up in firm condemnation and opposition to raging regime atrocities of the Buhari administration. If the Buhari administration and its atrocious DSS will have the effrontery to indulge in such abominable acts against the respected and adorable Benchers, using corruption mantra, then we are doomed both as a people and as a country if they are not resisted and fought to a standstill.”

•Photo shows Umeagbalasi.

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