{"id":53762,"date":"2016-10-08T21:41:09","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T20:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=53762"},"modified":"2016-10-08T21:41:09","modified_gmt":"2016-10-08T20:41:09","slug":"dss-gestapo-invasion-judges-residences-threat-democracy-fayose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/dss-gestapo-invasion-judges-residences-threat-democracy-fayose\/","title":{"rendered":"DSS gestapo invasion of judges\u2019 residences, threat to Democracy \u2013 Fayose"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"m_-8649922565474878054p1\">Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has described the invasion of<br \/>\nresidences of five judges, including those of two Justices of the<br \/>\nSupreme Court \u2013 Justice Walter Onnoghen (who is in line to succeed the<br \/>\noutgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria) and Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, by<br \/>\narmed men of the Department of State Service (DSS) and reported arrest<br \/>\nas a direct assault on the judiciary.<\/p>\n<p>Governor Fayose, who addressed the press in Ado-Ekiti <span class=\"aBn\" tabindex=\"0\" data-term=\"goog_696068613\"><span class=\"aQJ\">on Saturday<\/span><\/span>,<br \/>\nsaid; \u201cIt should now be obvious to all Nigerians and the international<br \/>\ncommunity that democracy is under threat in Nigeria and Nigerians must<br \/>\nrise to save democracy from being truncated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The governor said; \u201cFor all intent and purposes, there is no how the<br \/>\nfederal government can justify the gestapo and crude action of the DSS<br \/>\nagainst our judiciary, the last hope of the common man and I believe<br \/>\nthey just want to hide under anti-corruption fight to blackmail and<br \/>\nintimidate the judiciary. If not, have the affected judges been<br \/>\nreported to the National Judicial Council (NJC), the body saddled with<br \/>\nthe responsibilities of investigating and sanctioning erring judges?<br \/>\nWere the affected judges ever invited by the DSS and they refused to<br \/>\nhonour the invitation?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am particularly worried over the involvement of Justice Walter<br \/>\nOnnoghen in the invasion, and I hope this is not a plot to prevent his<br \/>\nappointment as the next CJN just because he is from the South South<br \/>\nregion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNigerians should be reminded that I raised similar alarm when this<br \/>\nregime of impunity started with the invasion of the Akwa-Ibom State<br \/>\ngovernment house and later the Ekiti State House of Assembly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did say then that democracy in Nigeria was becoming unsafe in the<br \/>\nhands of this APC government and that those keeping silent because of<br \/>\npolitics might also end up in the belly of the roaring lion that is<br \/>\nthreatening to consume our democracy. Then, those who ought to have<br \/>\njoined in condemning the DSS impunity at that time kept silent for<br \/>\nfear of the unknown.<br \/>\nNow we have gotten to the height of it and Nigeria faces full-blown<br \/>\nmilitary dictatorship! This is sad!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is more worrisome that two of the judges involved, Justice Adeniyi<br \/>\nAdemola and Justice Nnamdi Dimgba ruled against the DSS and condemned<br \/>\nits impunity on the cases of former National Security Adviser (NSA),<br \/>\nCol Sambo Dasuki (rtd) and retired Air Commodore, Umar Mohammed and<br \/>\none wonders if upholding the rule of law by refusing to help the DSS<br \/>\nto sustain its reign of impunity has now become a criminal offence for<br \/>\nwhich judges must be harassed, intimidated and arrested.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe question to ask is that, will the DSS be a judge in its own case?<br \/>\nEven if there are evidence(s) of corruption against the judges as they<br \/>\nwill want Nigerians to believe, the law is clear as to what to do. The<br \/>\nNJC must be informed and the council will in turn investigate the<br \/>\nallegation and take appropriate actions. It is after this that the<br \/>\naffected judges can be invited for questioning and possibly<br \/>\nprosecuted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt should be noted that few days ago, the NJC sacked three judges for<br \/>\nbreaching the Codes of Conduct for Judicial Officers and went further<br \/>\nto recommend that one of them, Justice Kabiru M. Auta be handed over<br \/>\nto the Inspector General of Police for prosecution for alleged<br \/>\ncorruption.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf NJC could do this less than one week ago, has the same NJC been<br \/>\ninformed of any allegation of corruption against the judges whose<br \/>\nresidences were invaded?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI therefore call on all Nigerians and the international community to<br \/>\nrise in defense of democracy and the rule of law in our country<br \/>\nbecause as it is, no one will be spared by this rampaging<br \/>\ndictatorship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cParticularly, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and other<br \/>\nstakeholders in the judiciary must not allow this to go unchallenged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, the DSS has become a threat to democracy in Nigeria,<br \/>\nhaving abandoned its core mandate of providing intelligence for the<br \/>\nprotection of the internal security of Nigeria as provided in the<br \/>\nSecurity Agencies Act Cap. N74 LFN, 2004.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has therefore become necessary that President Buhari put a stop to<br \/>\nthe actions and activities of these overzealous security agencies that<br \/>\ncan endanger democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"m_-8649922565474878054p1\">\n<p class=\"m_-8649922565474878054p2\"><span class=\"m_-8649922565474878054s1\"><span class=\"m_-8649922565474878054Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has described the invasion of residences of five judges, including those of two Justices of the Supreme Court \u2013 Justice Walter Onnoghen (who is&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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