By our correspondent

A group of lawyers under the platform of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy (LDD) have condemned what it described as “endless use of fabricated charges” by the DG, DSS to continue to hold suspended CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele in illegal detention especially the new afterthought charges of breach of contract procurement law.

The lawyers called on President Bola Tinubu to immediately sack the Director General of the Department of State Security Service (DSS), Mr. Yusuf Magaji Bichi for allegedly dragging the agency into a matter outside its jurisdiction and competence to handle.

“Mallam Bichi should be sacked now for pioneering the affairs of the organization in a manner that appears it has lost focus of its statutory mandate”, spokesperson of the group, Ahmed Yusuf Tijani told journalists after the aborted arraignment.

The lawyers’ position was informed by the involvement of the DSS in the arrest and subsequent charges preferred against the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele.

While describing the fresh 20-count charge against Emefiele as forum shopping and politically motivated, the lawyers wondered why the DSS should abandoned their statutory mandate of internal security to issues bordering on procurement of vehicles and called on the President to review the modus operandi of the DSS.

“We are here to witness the arraignment of the suspended CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele. You will recall that on July 25, 2023, we were in Lagos at Ikoyi Federal High Court, where the DSS arraigned former CBN governor on a two-count charge bordering on illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

“We condemned that arraignment and fortunately, the Court granted bail to Emefiele and you saw the show of shame that took place in court on that very day. We condemned both the arraignment and the charges and we told you that the gun in question was a Dane gun.

“I think they have gone back and look at the charge they preferred against him and they realized that they have goofed. Today, they wanted to arraign him on a 20-count bordering on procurement.

“It appears to us that the DSS has lost focus of its constitutional and statutory mandate. The DSS was established to handle matters that bordered on internal security -terrorism.

“Before now, they told us that Emefiele has cases to answer on matters that have to do with terrorism. We were expecting that the charges will reflect terrorism count charges. Surprisingly, what we saw is matters bordering on procurement. That he gave contracts for the purchase of Land Cruisers. This is a charade and making mockery of prosecution. We can’t take this. What the DSS is doing is forum shopping.

“This is an organization that appears to us to have outlived its usefulness in this country. We call on President Bola Tinubu to review the modus operandi of the DSS. It appears that they have lost focus and indeed, they have lost focus”, the group added.

The group equally called on the newly appointed Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) to review the activities of the DSS.

“We watched him speak during his screening at the National Assembly how he articulated his points on the justice sector which include reforms and how he condemned executive recklessness. We believe he can correctly fix the Justice sector of the country, this is the time for him to act, Tijani observed.