Nigerian Bar Association Prevails: DSS Releases Arrested Judges
- SitiTalkBlog
- Oct 10, 2016
- 2 min read
Nigeria - It has been reported that the Department of State Services (DSS) that unlawfully arrested Federal High Court Judges and Supreme Court Justices and allegedly brutalized their family members and domestic help during the arrest, have released them.
The following were the judges:
- Justice Inyang Okoro - Supreme Court
- Justice Sylvester Ngwuta - Supreme Court
- Justice Adeniyi Ademola - Federal High Court, Abuj
- Justice Kabir Auta - Kano High Court
- Justice Mu’azu Pindiga - Gombe High Court
- Justice Mohammed Tsamiya - Court of Appeal, Ilorin
- Justice I. A. Umezulike - Chief Judge of Enugu State
Daily Post Nigeria reports: "The judges were released on bail Sunday night on personal recognition.The seven judges were part of the 15 senior judges under investigation over alleged corruption. The judges reported on Monday at the DSS headquarters and they will be coming on Tuesday”, a DSS source told Daily Trust. “Everything went very procedurally well and civil. They were released on bail on self recognizance based on the fact that given their standing in the society, they cannot run away.“They were allowed access to their families and they are cooperating with us. We still respect them. They are not being treated like common criminals."
In the Daily Post Nigeria report,DSS was quoted to have stated they they arrested the judges when the National Judicial Council refused to cooperate with the DSS. The NJC is the formal governing Body which oversees the Judiciary which is supposed to be a separate arm of the government based on the constitution of Nigeria. Previously, following the arrests, the DSS had stated that they had acted based on recommendations from the NJC.
Nigerians are complaining that the DSS does not seem to have an understanding of the Nigerian constitution which they neither respect nor abide by.
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