A human rights lawyer, Maxwell Opara, on Tuesday, called on the Magistrates Association of Nigeria to sanction the magistrate that granted the Department of State Services (DSS)’s application for an order to detain suspended Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, after a Federal High Court (FHC), Lagos, admitted him to bail.
It would be recalled that the DSS had, on July 27, approached an FCT High Court presided by Justice Edward Okpe, with an ex-parte motion, for an order to detain Emefiele for 14 more days after he was re-arrested at a FHC, Lagos, shortly after the ex-CBN governor was admitted to bail by Justice Nicholas Oweibo following his arraignment for alleged illegal possession of arms and ammunition.
The security agency told Justice Okpe in Abuja that there was fresh evidence it had uncovered that warranted the request for the order.
But the judge struck out the motion for being an abuse of court process and upon its withdrawal by the DSS counsel.
Meanwhile, the DSS, through its Public Relations Officers, Dr Peter Afunanya, on Monday, said it has always obeyed court orders contrary to erroneous belief.
In the article written by Afunanya and titled: “DSS and Accusations of Disobedience to Court Orders– Setting the Records Right,” the security agency disclosed that after Justice Okpe refused to grant its application, “the Service immediately applied and obtained a detention order from a Magistrate Court.”
Afunanya said that their action followed Justice Okpe’s guidance that Section 293 of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA also recognises the magistrate court as a competent court that could first be approached for an order for custody of a suspect under investigation.
But speaking to newsmen on Tuesday, Opara disagreed with Afunanya.
The lawyer argued that under Section 27 of the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2010 and amended in 2022, it is only the Federal High Court (FHC) that has the powers to issue an order to detain a suspect facing terrorism charges, not a magistrate court.
Opara, therefore, called on the Magistrates Association of Nigeria to discipline the magistrate that issued the order.
He also called on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to suspend the DSS lawyer who filed the application at the magistrate court for engaging in forum shopping.
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His words: “This is abnormal. This is constitutionally wrong for a Federal High Court to give an order and a magistrate court will set it aside.
“I am calling on the Nigerian Bar Association as a matter of urgency to suspend that lawyer that engaged in forum shopping.
“What do I mean by forum shopping, when they came back from Lagos upon violation of that order of the court, two days after, they rushed to FCT vacation court to get an ex-parte order to detain Emefiele the more.
“Remember that as at that time they were moving the motion, there is also a subsisting court order and they are still with Emefiele.
“Now when they approached the court, the court said, ‘No, address me on this issue.’ And when they discovered that they cannot address the court on those issues and a legal team of Emefiele was already in court, the lawyer shamefully withdrew that motion and start moving from one court to another.
“We learnt that they have approached several courts; superior courts, but they refused to give them the order. So they decided to rush to one magistrate court to get that order,” he alleged.
Opara further called on the NBA to send the DSS counsel to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) for a sanction.
The lawyer, who called on the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, to come to the rescue, also urged President Bola Tinubu to sack the Director-General of DSS, Yusuf Bichi, for the alleged misconduct.
“We cannot continue like this. Nigeria is a country that is predicated on the rule of law.
“The people have lost confidence in the judiciary.
“We are calling on President Bola Tinubu to remove the DSS Director-General, Yusuf Bichi, because he is causing more confusion.
“He has created more harm than good. He is destroying our rule of law. He is destroying our democracy,” he alleged.
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