DSS court invasion confirms Nigeria sliding into frightening dictatorship —PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says the “furious invasion of the sanctity of the Federal High Court” by the officers of the Department of State Services (DSS) has confirmed that Nigeria, under the Buhari Presidency, “is finally sliding into a frightening dictatorship.”

The main opposition party was reacting to the Friday morning DSS invasion of the Federal High Court, Abuja, where Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu was presiding over the case of convener of #RevolutionNow and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore.

Omoyele was released on Thursday evening after 125 days in DSS custody, but the state security apparatus rearrested him on Friday (today) morning.

Taking to its verified Twitter handle @OfficialPDPNig on Friday, the main opposition party, in a series of tweets with hashtags drawing attention of world leaders and democratic institutions, tweeted:

“The party alerts that the invasion of the court is a vindication of its earlier stand that the nation is no longer governed by democratic principles of rule or law and dictates of the constitution.

“Today, the world watched with shock as operatives of the Presidency-controlled DSS, in a most horrific manner, swooped on the court, held the judiciary to ransom, disrupted proceedings, scared away the judge, chased away lawyers and journalists, attacked and rearrested persons standing trial within the precincts of the court in a manner that can only be obtainable in Idi Amin’s Uganda.

“The invasion is in a forceful suspension of our constitutional order and a further battering of the judiciary, which points to an emerging lawlessness that can only find space in a military regime.

“Without prejudice to the charge against the Convener of the “Revolution Now” movement, @YeleSowore, the @OfficialPDPNig

holds that, in a normal democracy, it is the duty of the court to determine the fate of an accused, according to the laws and not a resort to brute force by the government to silence persons with dissenting voices.”