By Olugbenga Salami
A group under the aegis of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy, LDD, has called for immediate suspension of the Director General, Department of State Services, DSS, Yusuf Bichi from office for describing lawyers defending the suspended Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, in court as Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB members.
The DSS had on Tuesday insinuated in a tweet that a lawyer, Maxwell Okpara, defending the suspended CBN Governor could be a member of IPOB, an outlawed group calling for secession of Igbo land from Nigeria.
The secret police also described the lawyers who filed contempt charges against the DSS boss over the continued detention of embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, as “charge and bail lawyers”.
The Service in a series of tweets posted via its official Twitter handle noted that the lawyers were headed by an “overzealous and uninformed IPOB/ESN lawyer”.
It said: “Charge and bail, overzealous uninformed IPOB/ESN lawyer Maxwell Okpara mobilises other like-minded lawyers against DGSS. Futile Efforts. Well, Nigerians, beware! This is in bad faith. Transferred aggression. A Biafran Republic agitator and Outlawed IPOB counsel defending the suspended CBN Governor. Is IPOB defending one of theirs.”
But, reacting to the terrorist tag and what they called ethnic profiling by the DSS, the Coalition of Lawyers in a statement signed by Tijani Ahmed and Maxwell Opara, demanded sack of the DSS director-general of DSS, claiming that the DSS is anti-igbo, as its conduct was an evidence that Emefiele is being held on personal vendetta.
They noted that the DSS statement was an insult to the sacred institution of the judiciary, hence President Bola Tinubu should ensure the suspension or sack of the DG for such unprofessional conduct.
The lawyers wondered why and how the secret police arrived to the conclusion that the lawyers were IPOB members.
They added that the outburst was part of their plans to silence Emefiele’s lawyers because they clearly have nothing against him.
The group said: “The DSS is clearly frustrated. They have nothing against Emefiele. This is just an example of kettle calling pot black. A rogue agency who at several occasions refused to obey court orders, is pointing fingers at someone else.
“How can an intelligence agency, write this kind of trash on her official Twitter handle? A total disgrace. A nation’s secret police tweeting something so irresponsible.
“The APC-led government need to prove to Nigerians that the DSS is an agency of the nation not the political elite by sacking Yusuf Bichi now!!!. We are waiting, the international community is watching. This is disgraceful. We won’t tolerate any disrespect to the judiciary.”
