Yusuf Bichi, the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), has been sued for suspected contempt of court by various constitutional and human rights lawyers.
According to the lawyers, the criminal case against the DSS boss stemmed from a disobedience of repeated court judgments and decrees demanding the release of suspended Central Bank of Nigeria governor Godwin Emefiele from the agency’s custody.
The lawyers, led by Maxwell Opara and Ahmed Tijani, are requesting that the court imprison Bichi until he clears himself of the contempt.
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The lawyers stated in their request submitted before the court for the issuance of Forms 48 and 49 that the judgements and orders of Justice M. A. Hassan, Justice Hamza Muazu and Justice Bello Kawu, the DSS DG ought to have released Emefiele from detention.
The consortium testified in support of the application that Justice M. A. Hassan barred the respondents in that suit, particularly the DSS, from arresting, detaining, or interrogating Emefiele for offenses related to terrorism financing, money laundering, round tripping, and financial crimes of national security dimension, among others.
According to their testimonies, despite Justice Hassan’s explicit and unequivocal orders, the DSS went ahead and arrested and held Emefiele for well over a month while looking for evidence that did not exist.
Opara told journalists after submitting their processes at the court registry that the organization would pursue the matter to its natural conclusion.
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They also pledged that Bichi would be imprisoned as a deterrent to other chiefs of security agencies and other government officials that contempt of court and blatant exploitation of their positions for personal gain would no longer be permitted.
Opara also called on President Bola Tinubu to immediately remove Bichi from his position as DSS DG for allegedly misleading the president into believing Emefiele had committed heinous crimes against the state, only for him to now charge the suspended CBN governor with possession of a validly registered pump action rifle.
The lawyer went on to say that because there was no genuine court order and the DSS couldn’t discover any proof against Emefiele, he was entitled to his release.
He determined that the DSS’s continuous imprisonment was illegal and violated all of his rights, which is why the consortium would ensure Bichi was committed to prison.
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