Sowore: Anger, condemnation trail DSS brutal re-arrest, desecration of court

 

• Soyinka, Ozekhome, Ezekwesili react

 

BY KAZIE UKO

The show of brute exhibited by agents of Nigeria’s secret service, Directorate of State Security (DSS), Friday, inside the courtroom of the Federal High Court, Abuja, while re-arresting democracy activist, Omoyele Sowore, has been roundly condemned by prominent lawyers and activists.

Sowore and his co-accused and detainee, Olawale Bakare, had been released on bail from DSS custody where they had been detained for about four months, barely 24 hours earlier, following an order by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu.

Justice Ojukwu had during sitting Thursday, frowned on the continued detention of Sowore and Bakare, despite their release on bail.  Consequently, she ordered the DSS to release the accused within 24 hours and to report to the court the following day to confirm that her order had been complied with.

Shame! DSS desecrates courtroom, wrestles Sowore to the ground, re-arrests him

But while the court was in session, armed men of the DSS numbering close to 100 ambushed Sowore and Bakare and arrested them, while Justice Ojukwu had to be hurriedly led out of the courtroom by her security.

Femi Falana, a senior advocate and lawyer to the accused, described the DSS action as an aberration and unprecedented in the history of Nigeria, even under a full-blown military rule.

He said: “Even under full military dictatorship, you will be allowed to drive out of the court premises and then be arrested on the street but not in the web of the court, it has never happened before.

“The court was in session and was forced to rise. The judge had to rise because they were threatening to shoot. The judge had to withdraw because they were threatening to shoot, and asked lawyers to take a date for their cases.”

Ozekhome: DSS danced naked in the streets

Another senior advocate, Sir Mike Ozekhome, in a statement to RELIABLESOURCENG.COM described the DSS action as tantamount to dancing naked in the streets.

“Today, 6th November, 2019, the DSS, the nation’s secret Service in the mould of FBI or CIA, danced naked in the streets, when it invaded a court of Law in an attempt to arrest Omoyele Sowore, accused of treasonable felony over his “Revolution Now” mantra.

“Recall that the DSS had finally bowed to a 24-hour ultimatum issued by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, to release Sowore and pay him N100,000 damages. It was a show of extreme shame, disgust and degeneracy to see a whole secret security apparachick descend to the abysmal gutters of physically invading the hallowed chambers of a court of Law to forcefully arrest a suspect, viet armis, by resort to crude and unorthodox Hitlerite Gestapo tactics in a supposed constitutional democracy.

“The video that went viral about this ugly and ill-advised outing that has further reduced our worth in the perception of the international community is condemnable in every sense of the word. It downgrades us, belittles us, and our humanity and make us laughable before civilised nations.

We beheld an unarmed, helpless and hapless Sowore being dragged on the floor, helplessly, like a vanquished prisoner of war (PoW) just taken as ransom.

“Justice Ojukwu had to be spirited off to her chambers by her security.

“When a government that is supposed to respect and protect institutions, citizens’ rights and rule of law, invades and desecrates the SACRED precincts of a Court of law, then we are in trouble,” Ozekhome said.

He added: “When the same DSS invaded Judges’ homes in October, 2016, terrorizing the hapless Judges and their families, many uninformed Nigerians hailed the misadventure as a sign of fighting corruption. I had vehemently disagreed then, citing section 36 of the 1999 Constitution and section 7 of the ACJA that inure in us our humanity and human dignity and respect. I had warned then of a possible descent into anarchy and chaos if the masked DSS goons were not immediately restrained and halted on their tracks.

“Friday’s disgraceful and atrocious outing by the DSS is the clearest exemplification of a rudderless state in search of a redemptive deus ex machina. A government that is short on tolerance to criticism, plurality of voices and opposition and which serially violates citizens’ rights and disobeys court orders is a ready recipe for organised disenchantment.

“Our constitutional democracy should be one modelled on the rule of law and not on the rule of the thumb of a benevolent ruler, even if dictatorial, tyrannical, absolutist and fascist.

Rein in your wild dogs of disobedience – Soyinka to Buhari

“A few years ago, I watched the video of a pack of the famed African wild dogs hunt, eventually bring down, and proceed to devour a quarry. It was an impala, antelope family.

“The pack isolated the most vulnerable looking member of the herd – it was pregnant – pursued it, until it fled to a waterhole which, for such animals, is the nearest thing to a sanctuary.

“A few minutes ago, almost as it was happening, I watched the video of a pack of the DSS, bring down, and fight over their unarmed, totally defenceless quarry within the sanctuary of a court of law. I found little or no difference between the two scenarios, except that the former, the wild dogs, exhibited more civilised table manners than the DSS court manners.

“Only yesterday (Thursday), in my commentary on the ongoing Sowore saga, I pointed out the near perfect similarity between plain crude thuggery and the current rage of court disobedience. Little did I suspect that the state children of disobedience would aspire to the level of the African wild dogs on a pack hunt,” Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka narrated in a piece to THE GUARDIAN titled: Lessons From The African Wild Dog (Lycaeon Pictus).

He continued: “I apologise for underestimating the DSS capacity for the unthinkable. I reiterate the nation’s concern, indeed alarm, about the escalating degradation of the judiciary through multiple means, of which disobedience of court orders is fast becoming the norm.

“May I remind this government that disobedience calls to disobedience, and that disobedience of the orders of the constitutional repository of the moral authority of arbitration – the judiciary – can only lead eventually to a people’s disregard of the authority of other arms of civil society, a state of desperation that is known, recognised and accepted as civil disobedience.

“It is so obvious – state disobedience leads eventually to civil disobedience, piecemeal or through a collective withdrawal of recognition of other structures of authority. That way leads to chaos but who set it in motion? As is often the case, the state, unquestionably. Such a state bears full responsibility for the ensuing social condition known as anomie.

“It has become imperative and urgent to send this message to President-General Buhari: “Rein in your wild dogs of disobedience. And for a start, get a trainer to teach them some basic court manners.”

DSS action, aggression against judicial arm of government by executive – Ezekwesili

In the same vein, a former presidential candidate, Oby Ezekwesili has warned President Buhari that “it is in his interest that Sowore is not harmed while in the detention of the DSS.”

Using her verified Twitter handle, the former minister condemned the re-arrest of Sowore and asked Buhari to direct the DSS Director General, Yusuf Bichi, to obey the court order on his release.

Ezekwesili noted that Sowore’s re-arrest in a courtroom was an aggression against the judicial arm of government by the executive.

She said: “I urge my fellow citizens who are reasonable enough to know that today’s episode amounts to full aggression against the Judiciary by the Executive arm of @MBuhari and portends an extremely dangerous development. We must all stand to defend our hard-won democracy.”

This is crossing the line – Okei-Odumakin

On her part, President of Centre for Change, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, in a statement titled: “Sowore: This is crossing The Line,” while condemning the DSS action, said, “Our attention has been drawn to the brazen and barbaric invasion of the Federal High Court where Omoyele Sowore was being tried.

“The gangsteric conduct of the men said to be DSS operatives, which led to the chasing away of the presiding Judge, harassment of lawyers and journalists and manhandling of Sowore, was a crude assault on the hallowed seat of justice and further desecration of our judiciary.

“Any society that tolerates this thuggish disposition of its security forces is lost beyond redemption.

“The only way the government can attempt to prove it does not sanction this bestial conduct is to fish out those responsible for this barbaric conduct and ensure the rule of law is followed in the case of Sowore.”

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