Femi Falana, senior advocate of
Nigeria (SAN), says there is no plan by the Department of State Services (DSS)
to report a federal high court judge to the National Judicial Council (NJC) for
granting Omoyele Sowore bail.
In a statement issued on Sunday,
Falana said the report on the secret service petitioning the NJC against Taiwo
Taiwo, the judge, who granted bail to Sowore, is false.
He said it was designed to
blackmail and intimidate judges in the case of the activist.
“However, in a desperate bid to
divert public attention from the contemptuous conduct of the SSS the federal
government has hurriedly pressurised the federal high court to assign the case
for the arraignment of Mr. Sowore,” he said.
“I wish to state without any fear
of contradiction, that the federal high court is competent to admit a person
charged with a capital offence to bail by virtue of section 161 of the
Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015. But in this case, Mr. Sowore has
not been charged with a capital offence.
“Treasonable felony is not a
capital offence under section 41 of the Criminal Code. Even under the most
brutal dictatorial regimes in Nigeria our courts did not hesitate to uphold the
fundamental right of the victims of repression to personal liberty including
those who were charged with treasonable felony.
“Having regards to the facts and
circumstances of this case, the SSS cannot complain against the handling of the
case by Justice Taiwo who did not even entertain our application to quash the
order for Mr. Sowore’s detention for 45 days. We had wanted to show that Mr.
Sowore did not engage in any terrorist activity to warrant his incarceration.
“In urging Nigerians to disregard
the dubious report it ought to be pointed out that Justice Taiwo has not been
accused of any act of judicial misconduct in ordering the conditional release
of Mr. Sowore from unlawful custody. After all, it was the SSS counsel, Mr.
Godwin Agbadua who withdrew his fresh motion ex parte motion for an order to
further detain him for 20 days.
“To that extent, the National
Judicial Council has no power to sanction a judicial officer for exercising
his/her discretion judicially and judicially in an application for the bail of
a citizen. In other words, since the NJC is not an appellate court it cannot
review the order for the conditional release of Mr. Sowore from illegal
custody.”
Taiwo had ordered the secret
service to release the publisher of Sahara Reporters immediately to his lawyer.
The judge held there was no
subsisting order to keep him in detention.
But the DSS is yet to comply with
the court’s decision.
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