Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) has joined the call for an end to the continuous detention of Alhaji Aminu Idris Yaro, the Sarkin Hausawa of Lagos by the Department of State Services (DSS), saying it is arbitrary and a breach of his fundamental right to personal liberty.
AYCF in a statement signed by its president, Alhaji Yerima Shettima, said it is regrettable that in the 21st century, Nigeria’s security agencies would still arrogate to themselves powers of arrest and arbitrary detention of individuals in case in which there is no likelihood or evidence that they committed a crime against legal statute.
“In the instant case of the arrest and detention of the Sarkin Hausawa of Lagos, there has been no proper due process of law or order. Virtually the Sarkin Hausawa and other individuals who are arbitrarily arrested and detained by the DSS are given no explanation as to why they are being arrested, and they are not shown any arrest warrant,” Shettima said in the statement.
He said depending on the social context, Sarkin Hausawa and the vast majority of arbitrarily arrested individuals are held incommunicado by the DSS and their whereabouts concealed from their families, and associates.
The AYCF said arbitrarily depriving an individual of his liberty is prohibited under international human rights law. “Article 9 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights decrees that ‘no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.’
“This in essence means that regardless of circumstances, it is wrong for the DSS to deprive the Sarkin Hausawa of his liberty without proper due process of law and without having first committed an actual criminal offence against a legal statute.
“As well, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights specifies the protection from arbitrary arrest and detention by the Article 9,” he said.
AYCF said the incarceration of the Sarkin Hausawa by the DSS for indefinite amount of time without trial amounts to violating Nigerian and international laws, particularly human rights laws.
“In recent times, we regret to say, the DSS has perfected the practice of indefinitely incarcerating individuals such as the Sarkin Hausawa who is held merely for being friends with suspended CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele who himself is being detained without due process.
“We wonder at what point being friends with people who are being investigated has become an offence. In that case almost all big personalities in Nigeria who are friends with Emefiele should be arrested and detained.
“We therefore view the singling out of the Sarkin Hausawa for such irreverent treatment as a deliberate attempt to ridicule the revered traditional institution in the country which is unavoidable. “We remind President Bola Tinubu to the reality that he is as well a product of struggles for protection of human rights and should therefore not allow human rights breaches to be perpetrated in his administration.
“We demand the immediate unconditional release of the Sarkin Hausawa or in the alternative, the enforcement of his right to be produced before a court of law within 48 hours which has been breached already by the DSS.
“We finally expect the northern traditional institution to rise to the occasion and speak out in the protection of the sanctity of the traditional heritage which obviously is being scandalized using Sarki Aminu as scapegoat,” Shettima said.
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