Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and
a legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, described
the arrest of judges by the Department of State Service, DSS, as an affront on
the independence of the judiciary. The duo, who said the situation portends
grave danger for Nigeria’s democracy, said if judges could be arrested by the
DSS, nobody is safe. This came as members of the human rights and
anti-corruption groups, held a peaceful protest, yesterday in Lagos, urging the
arrested judges to resign from their respective positions to allow prosecution.
The groups, which were led by Comrades Desmond Abiola and Kola Salau, grounded
vehicular activities in Alausa, Ikeja during the peaceful procession. Salau,
who made the group’s position known, said it was hypocritical for some people
to have described what the DSS did as a clampdown on the judiciary. However,
Fayose in his condemnation of the development, said: “I am particularly glad
about what is happening today, because the judicial officers had not done
enough to checkmate the executive.
I had earlier raised the alarm that
something like this will happen, so the current predicament of these judges
will teach a lesson that nobody is safe from harassment in Nigeria.” On his
part, Babalola said: “I am particularly saddened by the arrests. How can they
be so treated like criminals? The fact that the DSS released the judges the
next day showed that they did not evade arrest. Why should they humiliate them
in the first instance? It is a trite law that process arrest warrant, they
should not have gone on midnight raid of the houses of the judges.”
Similarly,
the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, at a briefing yesterday in Lagos, described
the development as infantile, illegal and unconstitutional. Founder of the
group, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, who briefed newsmen said: “I condemn this
Gestapo-styled invasion of the private homes of Nigerian judges.” He further
called on the National Assembly to summon the Director General of DSS for
questioning on the matter.
source: Punch
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