A civil society organisation, Justice Centre, has hailed the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for his uncommon courage, bravery, erudition and candour in declining to grant an Exparte application brought before him by the State Security Service (SSS) seeking an order to arrest and detain Central Bank Of Nigeria (CBN) governor,Godwin Emefiele, for at least 60 days.
This was the position of the CSO at its end of year press briefing on Tuesday in Abuja, where it expressed its views on the failed plot by the SSS to frame the CBN governor as a terrorist.
Recall that in a ruling delivered by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, he declined the application to grant the order for lack of evidence, absence of authorization of the President for the application to be brought and for being an irregular procedure which was unacceptable to the Court.
The Director of the group, Barr. Kingdom Okere, also lauded Justice Tsoho for standing firm in the defence of the rule of law in the face of planned intimidation and harassment of the Court by the secret police.
He said, “furthermore, the State Security Service must have known they did not have any credible evidence against the CBN Governor but for political and pecuniary reasons insisted on turning the rule of law upside-down.
“Otherwise, what could be the possible reason President Muhammadu Buhari would not have been informed of such grave allegations of Terrorism Financing against the Central Bank Governor when the President was in the country and in the same city of Abuja the same date the Suit was filed.”
The group further went ahead to join the call for the sack of the Director General of the SSS, Yusuf Magaji Bichi, for allegedly undermining President Muhammadu Buhari.
It added, “the Justice Centre finds no other option but to join the mounting call for the immediate sack of the Director General of the State Security Service, Mr. Yusuf Bichi from office to serve as deterrent for any person in government contemplating undermining the authority of the President.
“The whole world will now be looking forward to the reaction of the President over the recurrent attack on his promise to deliver credible, free and fair elections come 2023.”
