Two more aides of Yoruba nation activist, Sunday Igboho, have been released by the Department of State Security.
The lawyer defending the aides of Chief Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho, Pelumi Olajengbesi, disclosed this to newsmen as he threatens legal action against the security agency that is still holding on to two others despite the court granting them bail.
According to Olajengbesi, only Tajudeen Irinloye and Uthman Opeymi Adelabu were released on Friday, September 3 while Amudat Habibat Babatunde and Jamiu Noah Oyetunji remained in the custody of the secret police. He said the DSS didn’t give any reason for its refusal to grant freedom to the detainees.
A statement he released reads “DSS selective obedience to court order; an affront to and disregard of the authority of the court”, the lawyer noted that the DSS simply has no right or power to select or unilaterally handpick which order of the court is convenient for it to obey or honour.
The keenly observing world will recall that during our last press briefing on the ongoing case of Chief Sunday Igboho’s aides, it was reported that the DSS is yet to release four detainees on their custody on grounds of bail perfection technicality, in which we were allowed to secure the release of others.
The DSS’ cherry-picking of an order of the court is an open dare and affront on the authority of the issuing court and it lacks legal backing under the extant laws of Nigeria. It is a condemnable action in any sane democratic society and speaks ill of the professionalism of the intelligence agency.
The DSS simply has no right nor power to select or unilaterally handpick which order of the court is convenient for it to obey or honour. Any iota of non-compliance to an order of the court is tantamount to disregard of such an order in its entirety and the same is contemptuous.
Consequently, we want to restate that if by Monday the 6th of September, 2021, the DSS continue with their unlawful detention of the remaining two detainees, we shall not hesitate to proceed with our earlier plans to institute a contempt proceeding against the Director-General of the SSS, Yusuf Magaji Bichi.
The DSS as a law enforcement agency should not be allowed to carry out its official responsibility with impunity and absolute disrespect to the law of the land, especially where the constitutional rights and liberty of citizens are at stake. It is reprehensible conduct unbecoming of an agency which is itself a creation of the law and it will not go unchallenged.”