Some lawyers, who on Monday initiated contempt proceedings against the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Bichi over the continued detention of the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, have raised alarm over alleged threat to their lives.
Speaking on Wednesday at the premises of the Federal High Court in Abuja, the lawyers claimed that the DSS was threatening to link them with terrorism activities by allegedly referring to them as lawyers to the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Eastern Security Network (ESN).
One of them, Tijani Ahmed referred a viral tweet on the DSS’ official tweeter handle in reaction to the case they filed and insisted that the organisation was planning to hand a tag of terrorists on them.
Ahmed said “at about 6AM when we met this morning, the tweet was still there on the handle of the DSS. This was about 17 hours after it had been posted and had really gone.
“At that time, it had been seen by about 2 million people globally, generated over 3600 comments, retweeted almost 5000 times and liked more than 2500 times.
“The tweets which have been greeted by national outrage and condemnation is still on the handle of the security agency.
“In the same vein, the tweet by the DSS has also exposed it very clearly to the world that the persecution Mr. Godwin Emefiele suffers today is largely due to the ethnic profiling as directed by the DG DSS.
“The fact that Mr. Emefiele is Igbo and attained the height of CBN Governor to Mr. Bichi is an abomination hence his resolve to see that Emefiele is pulled down because to him, all Igbo are IPOB/ESN terrorists.”
Ahmed noted that it now appears obvious that the DG, DSS has declared war on lawyers and Igbo people, claiming that the persecution being suffered by Emefiele is largely due to ethnic and political reasons.
He argued that that it could not be a coincidence that several cases involving Igbo people were being serially disobeyed by the DG DSS.
Also speaking, another lawyer, Maxwell Opara said they have resolved to write the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) governments, President Bola Tinubu, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribafu on the issue, and equally sue for the enforcement of their rights.
The lawyers claimed that the attitude of the DG DSS was capable of tarnishing President Tinubu’s image. They commended members of the public condemning the said tweet by the DSS.
