The Senate, on Thursday, December 12, 2019 has waded into the controversy surrounding the invasion of the Federal High Court in Abuja by operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS and mandated its committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal matters to investigate the reported invasion.
This comes one week after DSS operatives in at least three pickup trucks stormed the court on Friday last week in a bid to rearrest Mr Omoyele Sowore, barley 24 hours after he was released.
In the process, there was a scuffle as Sowore’s supporters staged a strong resistance after which his lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Femi Falana, stated that it was wrong to make an arrest in court.
READ ALSO: Release Sowore, Bakare within 24 hours-Court orders DSS
Falana later drove Sowore in his vehicle to the DSS office where he was re-arrested and detained.
During Thursday’s plenary, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele from Ekiti State called the attention of the Senate to the matter.
The lawmaker relied on Section 43 of the Senate Standing Orders, saying the incident has raised a lot of concerns in different quarters in the country.
He said, “The leadership and members of the judiciary are particularly concerned about this development because they believe that the courtroom is meant to be a sanctuary.
“For us as a Senate, we cannot analyse issues based on conclusions without facts that we consider technical. Much as we cannot jump into conclusion, also is the fact that we cannot pretend not to know that Nigerians are concerned about this development.”
“Mr President, the reason I came under 43 is so that I will not generate any controversy or even make the Senate debate over an issue as I said earlier, we still need to have facts and evidence.
“As elected representatives of the people in whom Nigerians and including the Judiciary must find their voice, that we mandate our committee on National Security and Intelligence to interface with the security agencies to investigate what happened and report back to the Senate,” Senator Opeyemi proposed.
In his ruling, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, mandated the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters instead to investigate the incident.
The Committee, which is chaired by Senator Opeyemi, is expected to submit its report by Thursday next week.
Yetunde Adegoke
