Despite its shortcomings, the 8th Senate under the leadership of Dr
Bukola Saraki would have acted proactively following last Friday’s
invasion of the federal high court in Abuja by operatives of
Department State Service (DSS).
This disclosure was made yesterday, by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria
(SAN), Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa while reacting to the court invasion by
officers of the DSS and re-arrest of the convener of RevolutionNow
Movement, Omoyele Sowore and Olawale Bakare.
The duo were re-arrested inside the federal high court, Abuja while
the court was still sitting.
On his twitter handle, Adegboruwa wrote; “Notwithstanding its faults
and shortcomings, that National Assembly (under Saraki) was courageous
and blunt.
“The present Senate has not uttered a word, since the invasion of the
courts by the DSS,” he lamented, adding that the incident was very
unfortunate.
The legal luminary, who said he is not proud to be a lawyer at the
moment following the unfortunate incident, claimed under Saraki, the
National Assembly would have reacted differently.
In a related development, the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami,
has said the Federal Government has ordered an investigation into the
courtroom invasion by operatives of the DSS.
Recall that the secret police re-arrested Sowore less than 24 hours
after he was released from a detention that lasted 124 days.
This had sparked outrage within and outside the country. But the
presidency defended the DSS, saying Sowore became a person of interest
to the agency after calling for revolution.
However, when he visited John Tsoho, Chief Judge of the federal high
court, yesterday, Malami announced that the investigation of the
action of DSS was ongoing.
“Whatever affects the integrity of the court is a worrisome issue for
us… I can never be preemptive of an incident over which I was not a
live witness to,” he said.
“But one thing I am certain of is that the government has put in place
mechanism for investigation of the reported incident.
“So, I would not like to be preemptive in terms of a conclusion, one
way or the other, without allowing the consummation and conclusion of
the investigation process.”
Asked to comment about the re-arrest of Sowore who had been granted
bail by two courts, Malami said: “It is about tradition and not a
coincidence but then the truth of the matter is, I’m not here about
Sowore’s case. I’m here to visit his lordship to congratulate him over
his appointment but one thing about the judicial process, I think it
is not the only case that the federal government is involved.
“As you rightly know, we have multiple cases and more serious cases
than that of Sowore pending before the court generally, so the case of
Sowore is certainly not an exception, so I cannot be here for an
exclusive case.”
