Sowore instigating violence from custody, says DSS – TheNigerialawyer

The Department of State Services (DSS) says convener of the
Revolution Now movement, Omoyele Sowore, who is still in their
custody, has been using his phone to make calls to mobilize people
and call for violence and action against the Nigerian State.

Public Relations Officer of the DSS, Dr Peter Afunanya, who
addressed reporters in Abuja on Tuesday, said though they have
received the court order that Sowore be released, they could not
just let him go without releasing him without proper documentation
to the appropriate sureties.

Afunanya, also said Sowore’s lawyer, Femi Falana, had not been
to the DSS office or being in touch with them since the issue of
the bail started.

He alleged that personnel of the Service have also received
death threats from various quarters over Sowore’s detention.

“There is nothing that Sowore needs that we do not provide him.
He has been using his phone and making contacts and even using it
to mobilize people and call for violence and call for action
against the Nigerian state, and call for destruction of the
Nigerian entity. When you throw a stone in the market place, you
sure would not know on whose head it would land. Sowore has family
members in Nigeria who go to local markets, he has relatives. He
has uncles and sisters. If you set a fire, of course, you may not
know who will get the burns,” Afunanya said.

He said they could not have released Sowore to the protesters,
led by Deji Adeyanju, who were at the DSS headquarters last week,
because they were not the right people to receive them.

“The stand of the Director-General (Yusuf Bichi) and the stand
of the Service is not ambiguous about respect for justice, for rule
of law and for human rights. There is no division, no doubt that in
unison, the entire staff of the service would always pursue what is
good for Nigeria and what is good for her unity and progress and
stability. We have to carry out our duties and would continue to do
so in honour and good conscience despite deliberate efforts to
harass and intimidate us. The issue of human right in the last
week, the custody of suspects and all of that have been in the
front burner.

“We have issued statements in the past week and the statements
have been unambiguous. They were straight, direct and plain and at
all times we were explaining our stance on issues. That he was
granted bail by the courts, we said yes, we have received the court
order. Now, every legislative enactment and judicial pronouncement
needs to be enforced. They need to be enforced and that is why
there are law enforcement agencies operatives.

“If Sowore was granted bail and was in our custody and we said
yes you have been granted bail, now do we bring Sowore at the gate
and ask him to go. Is it a discharge of responsibility that we do
that? What if Sowore was going on the road and was knocked down by
a car. We said people who should take Sowore through proper
documentation had not come and up till now they have not come.

“Rather what some experienced persons, people who ordinarily
should be respected, came out to say that some people came and did
not see us, and we said this and that. That is not true.
Miscreants, protesters and some people who were not parties,
unqualified to stand and document properly and take responsibility
that Sowore had been released to them, those were the kinds of
person we saw. So they were not the appropriate persons and by
every argument of good conscience, is it the right thing for us to
have released Sowore to a mob? People who came and acted unruly and
were fighting and forcing themselves into the facility. And that
brings us to the issue of using guns on them. No gun was used on
any person. The DSS is a very responsible organization and
discharges its duties with utmost responsibility and
accountability. We have standard operating procedures on the use of
arms. So our staff couldn’t have used guns on any person.

“These people were not the kinds of persons that should have
come forward. We have continued to receive various threats on our
officers and personnel on how they would be mauled down on then
streets, how they would be physically attacked. Sowore people,
people who believed that they can harass security officer,
intimidate them, sending messages to their phones and threatening
that they would kill them and give them treatment they would live
to regret.

“Mind you this is not personal. We are doing a job that we must
do. The institution of security services or law enforcement must
exist for the good of the nation, otherwise, you can imagine what
the situation or the environment would be.

“If someone has stood in for Sowore, why wouldn’t the person
also come and take him and document properly. Documentation is
imperative in the discharge of security duty. We saw what happened
in the case of Nnamdi Kanu. He was granted a bail of this nature.
He went under and the social media and the public went accusing
security agencies of undermining him. Some even said he was killed
by the state. But it was not true that he was killed. Recent events
have proved otherwise. So how therefore is the DSS wrong that they
said that the administrative component of the judicial
pronouncement, that let people come forward and document properly
and take possession of the man they have stood for. That
responsibility is for issue of security accountability and we stand
on that,” he said.

Senate to investigate NEMA over ‘selective’ disaster
response

The Senate has directed its Committees on Special Duties,
Ecology and Climate Change and Environment to investigate the
effectiveness of the National Emergency Management Agency over
disaster response in 2019.

This was even as the chamber directed the NEMA to immediately
implement a response programme for the flood disaster that affected
various communities in Demsa, Numa, Guyuk and Lamurde Local
Governments of Adamawa State.

These were resolutions reached on Tuesday sequel to the
consideration of a motion sponsored by Senator Binos Yaroe (APC,
Adamawa South).

According to Yaroe, NEMA was established by Act 50 of the 1999
constitution as amended for the purpose of managing disasters in
Nigeria.

The lawmaker who lamented a major flooding which occurred in
October 2019 as a result of release of excess water by the
authorities of Lagbo dam in Cameroon, accused NEMA of being
selective in its disaster response interventions.

“NEMA performed a disaster response action by distributing
relief materials to communities in Furore, Yola South, Yola North
and Girei Local Governments of Adamawa State affected by the
floods.

“This intervention by NEMA was not extended to other local
governments in Adamawa State along the River Benue valley equally
affected by the flood disaster.

“Although the attention of the Director-General of NEMA was
drawn to the need to provide relief materials to communities of the
four local governments in Adamawa State severely affected by the
October floods, nothing has been done; and NEMA would appear to be
selective in its disaster response interventions,” Yaroe said.

Meanwhile, the Senate on Tuesday considered a Bill for an Act to
amend the National Council on Public Procurement and Bureau of
Public Procurement Act No. 14 of 2007.

The bill which was sponsored by Senator Abdullahi Sankara is
among the three bills up for amendment of the Public Procurement
Act by the National Assembly.

According to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, an amendment to
the Public Procurement Act would ensure a successful implementation
of the 2020 budget when passed into law by the National
Assembly.

The Public Procurement bill sponsored by Senator Sankara was
referred to the Senate Committee on Public Procurement for further
legislative work.

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