Security agencies lack powers to declare Nigerians wanted –Igboho’s lawyer

 

Pelumi Olajengbesi, one of the Nigerian-based lawyers of embattled Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, has said that the Department of State Services, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and other security agencies in the country lack the powers to declare any Nigerian wanted without valid court orders.

 

He stated this in a statement on Tuesday made available to our correspondent titled, ‘EFCC, SSS And Other Security Agencies In Nigeria Lack The Legal Powers To Declare Anyone Wanted Without A Valid Court Order’.

 

Recall that the DSS declared Igboho wanted for allegedly stockpiling arms to destabilise Nigeria, an allegation he had since denied.

 

Igboho, who has been in a detention facility in Cotonou, Benin Republic, since he was arrested on July 19, was earlier declared wanted after the activist escaped a bloody raid of his Ibadan residence around 1am on July 1, 2021.

 

Two of the agitator’s associates were killed by the secret police during the raid while 12 others were arrested. The DSS, however, released 10 of the detainees after 60 days in detention and held on to two others following an order by an Abuja court.

 

Lately, the EFCC also declared one Adewale Jayeoba, identified as the Marketing Director of Wales Kingdom Capital Limited, wanted for alleged fraud to the tune of N935m.

 

Reacting, the lawyer said both the DSS and the EFCC did not obtain court orders before declaring Igboho and Jayeoba wanted.

Olajengbesi wrote, “EFCC and other security agencies habitual public notices declaring individuals suspected to have committed a crime as wanted is unlawful, illegal and lacking the authorisation of the law. In fact, over time it has simply become a tool of administrative convenience to issue public summons on a suspect sought to be arrested and is an indicator of dictatorial tendencies inherited from the infamous military regime.

 

“There is no law anywhere in Nigeria that gives EFCC or even the SSS powers to declare anyone wanted without a valid court order. It is nonsense.

 

“The Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 being the Criminal Procedural Law with provisions which are binding on all agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria without exception have explicitly laid down processes from the point of arrest to the conviction or acquittal of a person, and no variation of same even if driven by overzealousness can be excused.

 

“Specifically, section 41 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 empowers only the court to issue public summons in newspapers or any other means when a suspect against whom a warrant of arrest was issued has absconded or is concealing himself so that the warrant cannot be executed.

 

“It is therefore even a condition precedent for the security agencies to have obtained a valid warrant of arrest first and foremost before the agencies can approach the court to declare a suspect wanted.

 

“The EFCC, SSS and other security agencies, therefore, have no legal power or authority to arrogate a power bestowed on the court by the law to themselves. Only the courts in Nigeria have and enjoy such a discretion.”

 

Olajengbesi noted that the security agencies “must urgently set their houses in order and stop lending themselves to illegalities for the sake of doing their duties.”