Law

Lawyers Smacked Back At DSS Over Terrorist Tag On Emefiele.

Published

10 months ago

July 19, 2023

Stella Charles Akupue

Lawyers Smacked Back At DSS Over Terrorist Tag On Emefiele.

A Coalition of Lawyers under the aegis of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy (LDD) has described as provocative and anti-Igbo, the allegation by the Department of State Services (DSS) that Lawyers defending the suspended Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, in Court, were IPOB members.

Our correspondent had reported on Tuesday in a tweet by DSS insinuating that a lawyer, Maxwell Okpara, defending the suspended CBN Governor, could be an IPOB member.

IPOB, calling for the secession of Igbo land from Nigeria, is an outlawed group in Nigeria.

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On Tuesday, the Department of State Services described the lawyers who filed contempt charges against DSS Director-General Yusuf Bichi, over the continued detention of embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, as “charge and bail lawyers”.

The Service, in a series of tweets posted via its official Twitter handle, noted that the lawyers were headed by an “overzealous and uninformed IPOB/ESN lawyer”.

The secret police said, “Charge and bail, overzealous uninformed IPOB/ESN lawyer Maxwell Okpara mobilises other like-minded lawyers against DGSS. Futile Efforts. Well, Nigerians, beware! This is in bad faith. Transferred aggression. A Biafran Republic agitator and Outlawed IPOB counsel defending the suspended CBN Governor. Is IPOB defending one of theirs?”

But, reacting to the terrorist tag and what they called ethnic profiling by the DSS, the Coalition of Lawyers, in a statement signed by Tijani Ahmed and Maxwell Opara, demanded the sack of the DSS director-general of DSS, claiming that the DSS is anti-Igbo, as its conduct was evidence that Emefiele is being held on a personal vendetta.

They noted that the DSS statement insulted the sacred institution of the judiciary. Hence President Bola Tinubu should ensure the suspension or sack of the DG for such unprofessional conduct.

The lawyers wondered why and how the secret police arrived at the conclusion using that the lawyers were IPOB members.

They added that the outburst was part of their plans to silence Emefiele’s lawyers because they clearly have nothing against him.

The group said, “The DSS is clearly frustrated. They have nothing against Emefiele. This is just an example of the kettle calling the pot black. A rogue agency who, on several occasions, refused to obey court orders is pointing fingers at someone else.

“How can an intelligence agency write this trash on her official Twitter handle? A total disgrace. A nation’s secret police tweeting something so irresponsible. The APC-led government must prove to Nigerians that the DSS is an agency of the nation, not the political elite, by sacking Yusuf Bichi now. We are waiting; the international community is watching. This is disgraceful. We won’t tolerate any disrespect to the judiciary.”

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