Human rights lawyers who approached the Federal High Court, Abuja, to commence committal proceedings against the Director- General of the Department of State Services (DSS) have berated the agency for referring to them as “charge and bail” lawyers.
The lawyers, in the suit filed by Mr Tijani Ahmed and Maxwell Okpara were asking the court to commit Mr Yusuf Bichi to prison for disobeying a court order on the continued detention of former CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele.
Briefing newsmen on Thursday in Abuja, Ahmed and Okpara maintained that they were solicitors of the Supreme Court and that categorising them as “charge and bail” lawyers was an attempt to disparage the legal profession.
The counsel further said that the recent development was that the DSS was planning to frame them up for terrorism by referring to them as Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Eastern Security Network (ESN) lawyers since IPOB had been proscribed by the Federal Government for being a terrorist group.
In the tweet, the DSS was quoted as having written the following, “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? What a contradiction, what’s the connection, may Maxwell be properly educated on points of law, please.”
The lawyers claimed that the tweet had now gone viral as it had not been pulled down from the official Twitter handle of the DSS as at the time of briefing newsmen.
“As at the last time, I viewed it, it had been seen by about 2 million people globally, generated over 3600 comments, retweeted almost 5000 times and liked more than 2500 times.
“The tweet, which has been greeted by national outrage and condemnation, is still on the handle of the security agency.”
The lawyers said they were surprised at the agency’s reaction towards them, adding that as human rights lawyers, they were only championing the cause people that had been affected by the agency’s disobedience to court orders.
The lawyers, thereafter, called for the sack of Bichi from office on the grounds that the attitude of the DG would tarnish the image of President Bola Tinubu.
They also thanked the public for the overwhelming public condemnation that trailed the tweet.
They said they would write to the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States governments and would also approach the court for the enforcement of their rights.
