The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has yesterday backed the Federal government for detaining the convener of #RevolutionNow Protest, Omoyele Sowore and former National Security Adviser to the former President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Sambo Dasuki despite various court orders to release them.
\nMalami made this known at a programme titled \u2018Good Morning Nigeria\u2019 aired by a national television, (NTA), which our correspondent monitor.
\nSpeaking at the programme, Malami said that Federal government did not default, noting that FG still has the right to detain Sowore and Dasuki until an appeal against the orders is determined by the Supreme Court.
\nHis words, \u201cPerhaps I need to clear the air on how the rule of law operates within the context of the Nigerian constitution. We have multiple and a plethora of judicial decisions that establishes a fact that when you are challenging a court order through a judicial process, the idea of disobedience to that court order does not arise.
\n\u201cThe misapprehension that set into the system and deliberately put in the public space is the fact that once there is a court order, you must unconditionally comply. You can only be adjudged being in disobedience of a court order when you don\u2019t take advantage of the constitutional powers, rights accorded to you by appealing against the order and perhaps seeking for stay of execution of the order or perhaps you don\u2019t take any steps seeking variation of the court order.
\n\u201cSo, in respect of those orders we are not comfortable with as a government, we go back to the court and have them challenged. Until that matter that your right of challenge, is determined up to the supreme court level, the idea of you being charged with disobedience of court order does not arise.\u201d
\nRecall that a federal High court in Abuja had severally asked the Department of the State Service, DSS, to release the publisher of SaharaReporters, but the service refused.
\nThe service noted the following as its reason: \u201cIt has therefore become unarguable and raises a moral question as to who, between Sowore and the Service, dislikes or disobeys the courts. In this regard, public attention may be drawn to the 25th July 2019 statement of Sowore that: \u201cI\u2019m not talking of protest. I\u2019m embarking on revolution\u2026 Don\u2019t tell me about legal implications or what a Judge will say. I don\u2019t care.
\n\u201cOn December 5 when Sowore was released, he had, at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel; Abuja addressed a group of persons who, he reassured of his cause to create anarchy in the country.
\n\u201cIt may be recalled that the Service had on 3rd December 2019 raised the alarm about a plot to destabilize the country. It is quite remarkable that the plot has already started playing out. To ensure this objective is further achieved, some persons and groups are scurrying to seize the opportunity of the misleading court incident and the wrong narrative against the DSS to organize an insurrection in the country. They have continued to falsely curry and mobilize international sentiments and attention, through clear misrepresentation of the facts, for their selfish ends.
\n\u201cFor emphasis, it should be noted that Sowore is facing trial not as an activist, journalist or a politician, but for his resort to call for violence, forceful takeover of government and suspected transnational illegal activities. It is most unfortunate that Sowore, shortly after being released from custody, based on court order, resorted to acts inimical to security.
\nTo this effect, only Sowore has been re-arrested as his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, was not picked up even when Falana had promised to deliver him to the Service that is not presently interested in him.
\n\u201cThough sections of the populace have been fed with spurious narratives about these developments, Nigerians and the international community should not be gullible or even vulnerable to the machinations of groups desirous of misleading them.
\n\u201cThe Service is committed to the discharge of its mandate of detecting and preventing threats against the internal security of Nigeria. It supports democracy in the country and will do all that is legal to protect it. It will also ensure that efforts of anti-democratic forces are frustrated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has yesterday backed the Federal government for detaining the convener of #RevolutionNow Protest, Omoyele Sowore and former National Security Adviser to the former President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Sambo Dasuki despite various court orders to release them. Malami made this known at a programme […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[688],"class_list":["post-223526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-front-pix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=223526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/223544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=223526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=223526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=223526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}