‘Disgraceful conduct’ — NBA condemns scuffle between DSS, prison officials over Emefiele

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) says the altercation between personnel of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) over Godwin Emefiele, was unlawful. 

TheCable had reported how DSS operatives had a face-off with prison officials over who should take custody of Emefiele, suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The incident occurred shortly after the embattled bank chief pleaded not guilty to a two-count charge bordering on alleged illegal possession of firearms.

The fight occurred in front of Nicholas Oweibo’s courtroom at the federal high court in Ikoyi, Lagos.

Eventually, Emefiele was rearrested by the DSS.

Reacting to the brawl in a statement on Wednesday, Yakubu Maikyau, NBA president, condemned the DSS “for its peculiar part in the disgraceful and unlawful conduct, considering the fact that the court had earlier ordered that the suspended CBN governor be kept in a correctional centre pending the perfection of his bail conditions”.

“The courts and judicial processes remain the barometer by which the conduct of persons or agencies of government are gauged in assessing the rule of law,” he said.

He described the incident as “further evidence of the lack of discipline and absence of professionalism that continues to plague key security institutions in Nigeria, which is largely responsible for the limited progress in achieving a coordinated response to security concerns across the country”.

“A situation where officers of federal government agencies engage in a fight as witnessed by the public, for whatever reason, is antithetical to our security as a nation and creates a recipe for anarchy and chaos,” he said. 

“Both the DSS and the NCoS are important institutions dealing with national security and administration of justice respectively, and the need for them to work in concert towards attaining justice in a secured Nigeria cannot be over-emphasised.”

The NBA president urged the two agencies “to take immediate disciplinary measures against the officers involved in this disgraceful conduct”. 

Maikyau also suggested “a complete overhaul of the institutions and a total reorientation of the personnel, to achieve professionalism and ensure synergy in the discharge of their respective constitutional responsibilities”.