Femi Falana (SAN), lawyer to detained convener of #RevolutionNow protest, Mr Omoyele Sowore, on Sunday accused the Federal Government of preferring to obey orders made by foreign courts than those issued by Nigerian courts.
Falana said this against the continued detention of Sowore, and Olawale Bakare, by the Department of State Service (DSS) despite court orders that they should be released.
The Human Rights lawyer, recalled how the Federal Government quickly obeyed the order of a London court to pay the sum of £250,000 cost to a foreign firm, Process and Industrial Development, as condition to appeal a controversial $9.6bn judgment.
He said, “The Federal Government has alleged that the controversial judgment debt of $9.6bn was obtained fraudulently by P & ID. But the commercial court in London recently ordered Nigeria to pay £250,000 within 14 days as a precondition for filing an appeal against the judgment.
“The said sum of £250,000 has since been paid to P & ID in strict compliance with the orders of Her Majesty’s High Court in London.
“But since national security takes precedence over the rule of law at home, the orders of the Federal High Court for the immediate release of Messrs Sowore and Bakare have been brazenly disobeyed by the State Security Service.”
The warrants for the release of Falan’s clients were issued by the Federal High Court in Abuja and duly served on the DSS on Thursday but the DSS, through its spokesperson, Peter Ifunaya, on Friday claimed that the non-release of the two men was due to the failure of their lawyers to show up to receive them.
Falana rejected the claim, saying lawyers from his team waited in vain for hours to receive their clients from custody on Thursday.
Seeing that as an indication that the DSS was ready to comply with the court order, defence lawyers, activists and supporters of Sowore and Bakare arrived at the DSS headquarters in Abuja at about 8am on Saturday but again waited in vain for their release.
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