10th December, 2019
Ondo state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has urged legal practitioners to condemn the DSS for desecrating the nation’s courtroom, in the bid of its operatives to re-arrest Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Saharareporters in Abuja.
The governor, a senior advocate of Nigeria made the call at the opening of the 65th anniversary conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Ibadan branch, held at Aare Afe Babalola Bar Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan, on Monday, December 9.
Akeredolu’s remark was the first by any high profile political figure against the invasion of the court by operatives of the secret agency.
Making specific reference to the rearrest of Omoyele Sowore by the Department of State Services (DSS), Akeredolu, who chaired the occasion, warned that judges were at risk of being arrested in wig and gown during court session if the bar continued to adopt a passive and inactive posture on the issue.
“We must be terror against demagogues. It is when your voice of the bar is heard consistently that it will earn respect.
“Will people go and desecrate our courtrooms and we keep quiet? The bar must condemn it. There is no explanation anybody can give you.
“Somebody calls it drama. Drama! How? What we saw was not drama, you must stand up to condemn the SSS for what they did in Abuja.
“Our spirit must remain indomitable. Forget about where we are today because enough of us made efforts to say what you have done is wrong and only way out was apology almost immediately but what people believe is different. You must write to justify what is not justifiable.
“If we are not careful, the day will come that people will walk into a judge’s sitting and arrest people with their wig and gown.
“I am not saying our judges are timid but in the face of the gun, most of our judges will shake.”