The Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a Judicial Commission of Enquiry to probe into the alleged invasion of the Federal High Court, Abuja, by operatives of Department of State Services (DSS).
T. J. Onomigho Okpoko,( SAN), stated this in Abuja on Thursday, in a paper he presented on behalf of the group at the valedictory court session in honour of Justice Kumai Akaahs, who retired as a justice of the Supreme Court on Thursday.
The body said the event was troubling, particularly the audacity with which some of the actors entered the courtroom.
”They exposed our hallmark of indiscipline to the whole world in a matter of seconds. The way out is an independent commission of enquiry under the law. This can be achieved.
“The Body of Senior Advocates hereby demands that Mr President considers without delay, the setting up of a judicial commission of enquiry to hear publicly and determine the perpetrators of the acts, their sponsors and their objectives” Okpoko said.
According to him, unless, this is done, Nigerians are unlikely to be convinced by any other explanations that the act was not the work of the DSS.
The group said it was the result of any such inquiry that would lead to the re-establishment of discipline in the society. He added that the DSS and its officers were not above the laws of the land and the Constitution.
“In Nigerian law and in the Common Law, the Superior Orders is no defence to a criminal conduct. It has never been and this administration must not allow it to be.
“What took place in Nigeria was seen not only by Nigerians but by people all over the world” and we condemn that act in its entirety.
He insisted that a country that did not respect its judiciary could not qualify as a democratic country.
“The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria recognises the judiciary as the third arm of government in the country to which the judicial powers of the nation is vested,” he said.
He insisted that no one suggested that judges were above the law or that they ought not to be arrested when there was justifiable cause to do so.
