Lawyer Faults DSS, Says Court did not Order Sowore should be Released to Any Person

Pat Stevens/

A member of the defence team of Omoyele Sowore, the convener of the #RevolutionNow movement, Inibehe Effiong, has faulted the reason given by the Department of State Services (DSS) for the continued detention of the pro-democracy activist.

The DSS had claimed in a statement yesterday that it was prepared to comply with the court order that Sowore should be released on bail but no one had turned up to receive him.

Effiong, who is also the National Legal Adviser of the African Action Congress, described the statement by the DSS as “false and contemptuous”.

In a reaction which he tweeted via his handle, @InibeheEffiong, he argued that the court did not direct the DSS to release Sowore to someone, but simply said that he should be released.

He added that he was at the DSS head office on Thursday but the agency refused to release Sowore and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, aka Mandate, to him.

His tweets read: “The statement by the DSS is false and contemptuous. The court did not direct the DSS to release Sowore to someone. The Order says he should be released, period! I was at DSS facility in Abuja yesterday where I met with DSS lawyers, Sowore and Bakare. They refused to release them.

“Nigeria has been turned into a banana republic by this regime. What “processes” is the DSS talking about? Are they sitting on appeal over the order of the Federal High Court? Are they exercising supervisory jurisdiction over Hon. Justice Ojukwu?

“What type of country is this? The DSS cannot be acting as if they are above the law. This tyranny has to stop. The detention of Sowore and Bakare is in defiance of the court. Democracy is useless where the rule of law is crushed.

“Rather than play the ostrich, the Bichi-led DSS should obey the subsisting order of the Federal High Court by releasing Sowore and Bakare forthwith.”

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