SOWORE: NHRC decries DSS disobedience of court order

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has condemned the continued detention of the convener of #RevolutionNow, Omoyele Sowore, and Olawale Bakare by the Department of State Services (DSS).

DSS failed to release the duo despite admitting on Friday that it had been served with the warrants issued by the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court for their release.

Executive Secretary of the rights commission, Tony Ojukwu, in a statement on Saturday, said such disobedience to court order erodes the confidence of the people in government and the judiciary.

He stated, “Many cases have been reported to the commission about investigating police officers and state security officers deliberately refusing or delaying to verify bail conditions following court orders just to punish suspects unduly for reasons that are not constitutional.

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“The constitution guarantees the innocence of every citizen of Nigeria until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.

“A situation where the orders of courts are continuously disobeyed by security agents makes such security agents judges onto themselves and such situation does not augur well for our democracy based on separation of powers and rule of law.

“It makes the law uncertain at any point in time and leads to loss of confidence of the people in government and state institutions of which the judiciary is one.

“A situation like this can also lead to self-help thereby creating more problems for law enforcement agents and threaten the precarious situation of state responsibility to respect, protect and fulfill human rights in the country.”

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