The growing penchant for disrespect to rule of law/orders of constituted authorities and abuse of human right by
the Director General of the DSS Lawal Daura got the alarming late with the DSS DG decision to ignore the resolution of
the House of Representatives demanding that he releases from his illegal detention Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, an aide to the Senate
President and President of Youth Council and three others(Emeka Dibia,Ejike Nwachukwu and Ugo Apumagha) but instead in a
daring show of his growing lawlessness ordered all the bankers to the account of the Saraki aide to be frozen.
Speaking to the media today, the leader of the lawyers in defense of democracy whose earlier rally was disrupted during which their office was invaded and properties taken away alongside four of their members has this to say,
…We are shocked that the DSS instead of releasing our members who have been illegally detained has taken its lawlessness to another front. First it was the invasion of
our office at Shakir Plaza in the early hours of December 22, 2016 during which sledgehammer weilding DSS officers destroyed our offices which serves as
our contact office and lawfirm of Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere and partners,the DSS arrested four of our members after using iron bars to beat them up
around 2am and carried all our law office working materials and case files, the materials designed for our 22nd december 2016 rally to protest against the growing
culture of impunity, the money in the law firm was taken including the safe and electronics equipemnts without any documentation of all the looted materials.
The DSS has since kept the arrested members in a secret cell with no access to family or lawyers for over 30 days. We have gone to see them but were angrily turned back and threatened, they have refused to charge them to court if at all they committed any offence by trying to exercise their fundamental
right for freedom of expression.
The rally which was disrupted by the DSS on the baseless excuse that it will lead to break down of law and order was still held by our courageous
members weeks ago(January 23,2017) and there was no breach of public peace which has exposed the lies of the DSS whose only aim of attacking us was to silence us. The question now is why are you still holding our members and Ikenga when the accusation leveled against them was baseless and
have been overtaken by the event of the disrupted rally holding.It was because of this lawlessness that the House of Reps in a unanimous Motion condemned the
DSS Action and ordered their DG to release Ikenga and the other three activist from illegal detention and also set up a probe panel to investigate
the many acts of lawlessness and growing impunity of the DSS from June 2015 to 2017.
THE DSS AGAIN
…We had expected that the resolution of the House and the impending probe of the impunities committed by the DSS with their abuse of office, abuse of human rights, illegal detention, disobedience of court orders etc would make them sober but the DG SSS has gone on the loose in a daring confrontation with the House of Reps
like he does to court decision which he ignores by refusing to release Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, Ejike Nwachukwu, Emeka Dibia and Ugo Apumagha from his illegal
detention but has gone ahead to continue expanding his abuse of the person of Ikenga, his business and his freedom with the latest order to the bank to freeze
his accounts especially his lawfirm account which is a business account used in running the law firm.
Today, the lawyers at the law firm of Ikenga made an attempt to renew the law firm rent at suit 29b Shakir Plaza,Area Eleven Abuja using a rental Post dated
cheque issued last year by Ikenga weeks before his arrest and billed to mature this week to concinde with the law firm rent renewal, the rent payment
cheque bounced and could not go through and upon inquiry after hours of hide and seek by the bank, the bankers informed us that the accounts and all accounts connected to it have been frozen on the orders of the DSS. It was at that point that we checked with other colleagues and found out that all business and joint
accounts of IKENGA and the law firm have been frozen on the orders of the DSS.
This is shocking as there is no court order and authority upon which DSS has carried this new lawlessness going by the fact that our detained members did not commit any financial offense and breach any law by planning to exercise their right to freedom of association. We are calling on all Nigerians to stand up and condemn this growing impunity and determination to destroy and uproot people whose views is at variance with that of the govt and their servants. This is a democracy and not an autocratic reign, we will not be intimidated to abandon our resolve to continue to stand up against impunity.
BARR. AGU OKWUKWE
NATIONAL CORDINATOR LAWYERS IN DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACY
