The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has reacted to what it called the belated order to release erstwhile National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), and the Publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, from the dungeons of the secret service after years and months of illegal detention against the clear orders of the competent Courts of law that granted multiple bails to the duo and many other yet-to-be-freed political prisoners.

The group said that the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Alhaji Abubakar Malami, should be stripped of the title of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria for defending illegality and helping to foster a regime of flagrant breaches of the fundamental human rights of many Nigerian citizens.

“It is a monumental shame that the current Chief Law Officer of the Federation, Alhaji Abubakar Malami, who spent the last five years of his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari, defending the indefensible cocktails of illegalities and the wanton display of impunity, lawlessness, vigilante and selective administration and enforcement of the laws and the incessant and arbitrary arrests and illegal detention of civil rights leaders, key figures of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under the disguise of fighting corruption.

“(This) nevertheless has become even more endemic and systemic whilst the President looks the other way and let his party men and officials abuse their offices and engage in arbitrariness.

“The order to release the duo of Col Dasuki and the political activist Mr. Sowore after prolonged disobedience of multiple Orders of the Court must be punished heavily.

“We call on the Nigerian Bar Association, the Body of Benchers and all relevant legal regulatory bodies to strip the Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Minister of Justice of the high title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria because he has brought shame and global opprobrium to Nigeria with the show of shame of open defecation by his pay master President Buhari on top of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“We ask these illegally detained Nigerians to also pursue claims running into at least N10 billion each for the grave violations of their civil liberties by the current administration.

“It is a shame that we have a near incompetent Chief justice of Nigeria who has remained silent whilst the judiciary is ridiculed by the lawless executive arm of government. The rebuilding process of the battered judiciary may take years to be completed given the extent of demolition of the independence and the integrity of the judiciary and the Court system by the current government that lacks respect for the constitutionally guaranteed principles of separation of powers.”

HURIWA however condemned the Federal government for continuously violating the human rights of many Nigerian citizens and for its open disobedience to multiple court orders.

The group said it would amount to canonizing illegality should Nigerians celebrate the release of these political prisoners rather Nigerians should demand for some forms of sanctions for the Federal Attorney General and Minister Malami under whose watch these illegalities happened.

HURIWA has also asked the DSS to release all illegally detained citizens or charge them to court including the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zazaky and his wife.

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