The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has described the arrest of the members of the Zamfara State House of Assembly by operatives of the State Security Service, as a proof of the lack of respect the ruling party has for the rule of law.
In a statement on its Twitter handle on Thursday, the PDP likened the arrest of the Zamfara lawmakers to that of Honourable Akani Afolabi of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, who was arrested for days by the DSS.
The text of the statement reads :
We
are concerned by reports of the arrest and detention of members of the
Zamfara State House of Assembly by the State Security Service for the
performance of their legislative duties as provided for by the Constitution.
A
press release by the Chairman ZSHA Committee on Information indicate that the
Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Majority Leader , other principal members of
the ZSHA and supporting staff have been arrested and detained for
investigating Gov. A. A. Yari on the the grounds of abuse of office, misappropriation of
statutory allocations, misappropriation of bailout funds, appointment of
the Chairman of SUBEB despite allegations of
misappropriation of N1 billion and other related issues.
These arrests follow a previously threaded
path where the DSS arrested and detained Mr. Akanni Afolabi of the Ekiti
State House of Assembly for several days without charge for the
performance of his legislative duties as provided for by the constitution.
We are concerned
that the arrest and detention is being carried out in contravention of
Section 3 of the Legislative Houses (Powers
& Privileges) Act which protects members of the Legislature from
prosecution for the performance of their lawful duties as
provided for by the Constitution. We feel the need to speak up as this
action, carried out in the manner of the unlawful arrest & detention of Mr.
Akanni Afolabi of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, is a threat to our
democracy, is a violation of the legislature and exposes the lack of
respect this administration has for the rule of law.
For the avoidance
of doubt, we posit that the DSS not only lacks the power to arrest members of
the ZSHA or any Legislative House for
carrying out their lawful duties, but also ought not to be used as a tool with
which to harass real or perceived political enemies. For the purposes of
clarity, the DSS was established by S3 of the National Security Agencies Act
to carry out the following functions
We
speak up in this manner because a threat to democracy anywhere is a threat to
democracy everywhere. We urge the DSS to immediately release the
lawmakers and to refrain from being used by politicians as a tool to harass
and intimidate opponents.
God
bless Nigeria.
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