Lawyers fighting for Emefiele critisise DSS, as suspect files lawsuit for bail
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
A group of 60 human rights lawyers who filed contempt charge against Department of State Services (DSS) Director General Yusuf Bichi keeping Godwin Emefiele in custody, despite a court order for his release, has rejected their description by the secret police as “charge and bail lawyers.”
The DSS in a Twitter post also ridiculed them as “IPOB lawyers” for agitating for the release of the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who has been detained without trial since June 10, a day after President Bola Tinubu suspended him.
Tijani Ahmed, the leader of the lawyers, accused the DSS of threatening to frame them up with terrorism charges as it linked them in the tweet with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Eastern Security Network (ESN).
The DSS posted the tweet a few hours after the lawyers filed the contempt charge at the Abuja Federal High Court on July 18.
“Charge and bail, overzealous uninformed IPOB/ESN lawyer Maxwell Okpara mobilises other likeminded lawyers against DGSS. Futile Efforts. Well, Nigerians, beware! This is in bad faith. Transferred aggression,” the DSS tweeted.
“A Biafran Republic agitator and outlawed IPOB counsel defending the suspended CBN governor. Is IPOB defending one of theirs? What a contradiction…..hmmm…whats the connection? May Maxwell be properly educated on points of law, please.”
The tweet did not address the substance of the matter, that the DSS is breaking the law by disobeying court orders, the poster characteristic of the Muhammadu Buhari years which Tinubu is copying.
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Lawyers push back
Okpara countered it is wrong for the DSS to use its platform to insult the legal profession.
“At about 6am when we met [on July 19] the tweet was still there on the handle of the DSS,” he said, per reporting by Vanguard.
“This was about 17 hours after it had been posted and had really gone viral. At that time, it had been seen by about two million people globally, generated over 3,600 comments, retweeted almost 5,000 times and liked more than 2,500 times.
“The tweet, which has been greeted by national outrage and condemnation, is still on the handle of the security agency.
“In the same vein, the tweet by the DSS has also exposed very clearly to the world that the persecution Mr. Godwin Emefiele suffers today is largely due to the ethnic profiling as directed by the DG DSS.
“The fact that Mr. Emefiele is Igbo and attained the height of CBN governor, to Mr. Bichi is an abomination, hence his resolve to see that Emefiele is pulled down, because, to him, all Igbo are IPOB/ESN terrorists.”
Okpara urged Tinubu to intervene by calling the DSS to order, saying the group has, in addition to the contempt charge, also written a petition to the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Update on backstory
The lawyers filed Form 48 (notification of consequences of disobedience to a court order) and Form 49 (seeking to commit an alleged contemnor to prison) against Bichi,
An affidavit they attached to the applications accused Bichi of disobeying subsisting court judgments over Emefiele’s arrest and detention.
Emefiele has this week filed another suit at the Lagos Federal High Court seeking bail on self-recognisance, pending the determination of the charges filed against him by the federal government.
The bail application, which is premised on nine grounds, was filed by a team of 10 lawyers led by Joseph Daudu, SAN.
Emefiele argued the charges against him are bailable, stressing he has never been convicted of a crime and should enjoy the presumption of innocent until proven guilty, adding he is not a flight risk.
He said granting him bail would afford him adequate time to prepare his defence, without the likelihood of him interfering with DSS investigation that has already been completed.
He pledged to show up for trial on time and to offer responsible sureties as the court may require.