A Lagos-based lawyer, Tope Alabi, has asked a Federal High Court
in Lagos to ban the State Security Service (SSS) from being
addressed or addressing itself as ‘Department of State Service
(DSS)’ without an amendment of the law.
![image](/2021/07/Justice-Ejembi-Eko-1.jpg")
![image](/2021/08/heroLawp.jpg")
Alabi also prayed the court to declare that the DSS is not an
agency established under any law in Nigeria.
![image](/2021/07/escrow-service1.jpg")
He made the prayers in his August 23, 2021 suit numbered
FHC/L/CS/1071/21, with the State Security Service (SSS) and
Attorney-General of the Federation as first and second
respondents.
He also sought a declaration that the authorised operations of
the SSS neither involve arrest and detention of Nigerians without a
court order nor involves arrest or extrajudicial killing of a
person accused of a crime without a trial and conviction by a
court.
Alabi, in his August 24 affidavit in support of the suit seen
our correspondent, referenced the October 8, 2016, SSS invasion of
judges’ homes, August 2, 2019 invasion of Omoyele Sowore’s home and
that of the July 2021 raid on the home Sunday Igboho, during which
12 persons were arrested.
He further sought a declaration that the authorised operations
of the 1st defendant “do not involve the killing of Nigerians in
their private homes at midnight when they are asleep, without a
trial and conviction by the competent court in Nigeria and without
a death sentence upon which execution may rest.”
In another prayer, he asked the court to determine whether the
SSS can invade any state without the knowledge and consent of the
sitting governor of such state, among other prayers.
According to him, the SSS’ had made itself “an agent for dispute
settlement and debt recovery among the citizenry” and that its
activities had been creating “panic and terror in the society”.
No date has been fixed for hearing of the suit
A Lagos-based lawyer, Tope Alabi, has asked a Federal High Court
in Lagos to ban the State Security Service (SSS) from being
addressed or addressing itself as ‘Department of State Service
(DSS)’ without an amendment of the law.
Alabi also prayed the court to declare that the DSS is not an
agency established under any law in Nigeria.
He made the prayers in his August 23, 2021 suit numbered
FHC/L/CS/1071/21, with the State Security Service (SSS) and
Attorney-General of the Federation as first and second
respondents.
He also sought a declaration that the authorised operations of
the SSS neither involve arrest and detention of Nigerians without a
court order nor involves arrest or extrajudicial killing of a
person accused of a crime without a trial and conviction by a
court.
Alabi, in his August 24 affidavit in support of the suit seen
our correspondent, referenced the October 8, 2016, SSS invasion of
judges’ homes, August 2, 2019 invasion of Omoyele Sowore’s home and
that of the July 2021 raid on the home Sunday Igboho, during which
12 persons were arrested.
He further sought a declaration that the authorised operations
of the 1st defendant “do not involve the killing of Nigerians in
their private homes at midnight when they are asleep, without a
trial and conviction by the competent court in Nigeria and without
a death sentence upon which execution may rest.”
In another prayer, he asked the court to determine whether the
SSS can invade any state without the knowledge and consent of the
sitting governor of such state, among other prayers.
According to him, the SSS’ had made itself “an agent for dispute
settlement and debt recovery among the citizenry” and that its
activities had been creating “panic and terror in the society”.
No date has been fixed for hearing of the suit