The immediate past Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) 2nd Vice President, Mr. Monday Onyekachi Ubani has blasted the Department of State Security (DSS) for its refusal to release Mr. Omoyele Sowore, the Convener of #RevolutionNow.

He also lampooned the security agency for its alleged plan to drag Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court to the National Judicial Council over his decision to grant bail to Sowore. Justice Taiwo had refused to extend the 45 days detention order against the Sahara Reporters publisher and former students’ union leader.

Mr. Ubani said that he “is clearly at a loss as  how and when court’s decision has become a ground for petitioning NJC,” adding: “What is the allegation against Justice Taiwo Taiwo in the first place? Is it that he has no jurisdiction to release Mr. Sowore after the expiration of the detention order or that the court has lost all the powers under the law to make orders that do not favour DSS in Nigeria anymore? I cannot understand the meaning and substance of the alleged threat to petition him to NJC.”

Mr. Ubani warned that should DSS insist on the petition, “they must also not forget to report to NJC that it was the same Justice Taiwo Taiwo that granted them the detention of Mr. Sowore for 45 days in their detention centre. That information is very important to be disclosed to NJC.”

According to the human rights activist, “It is high time lawyers stood up against this calamitous destruction of the legal system by the security agencies in Nigeria. We lawyers cannot keep quiet anymore because they are trying to destroy the only area where we are operating, which is the court.

“Judiciary is the only place where we operate, so if they succeed in destroying it no one will have regard and respect for us and for the country. If lawyers allow the Judiciary to be emasculated by the executive we are finished, Nigeria is gone, the legal profession is finished.”

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