The need to repeal law setting up the Department of State Services (DSS) by the National Assembly has been recommended.
Former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Edo State, Barrister Osagie Obayuwana, made this recommendation in Benin City, Friday, December 6, at the 2019 World Human Rights Week organised by Edo Civil Society Organisations (EDOCSO)
Speaking on the theme: “Judge’s rule- what it entails and to what extent does it apply“, Barr. Obayuwana said the law establishing the DSS has outlived its usefulness.
“There is a precedence for this. We once had an outfit called the NSO. The SSS or DSS as they now call themselves, have completely outlived its usefulness. It is beyond redemption. It has to be dissolved immediately”, he added.
He noted that it goes beyond reshuffling of the leadership of the DSS, saying, “the entire composition of DSS from the top to the bottom, having shown itself to be unworthy, be disbanded.
“We call on the Nigerian people and the Nigerian Bar Association to insist on this; and the National Assembly to side with the Nigeria people, to repeal the law that established the DSS, sack all it’s personnel and by legislation, lay the foundation for a new security system agency focused on the protection of the well being of all Nigerians as opposed to the imagined interest of few office holders in Nigeria”, he noted.
The former attorney general of the state noted that the recent re-arrest of the human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore at the premises of the court was a slap on the nation’s judiciary.
“The crude re-arrest of Omoyele Sowore and Olawale Bakare within the court promises, where they had gone to answer to the charges against them, is not only an insult to the judiciary as an institution and the system of administration of justice as a whole, it is a spite on all that is decent about Nigeria and world opinion”, he said.
He stated that the DSS should concentrate on their duty if they really want to serve the public rather than playing to the gallary of some individuals in the office whose powers are transient.
