The Arewa Youths Consultative Forum (AYCF) has joined the growing chorus urging the Department of State Services (DSS) to halt the continued detention of Alhaji Aminu Idris Yaro, the Sarkin Hausawa of Lagos.
The forum asserts that the detention is arbitrary and infringes upon his fundamental right to personal liberty.
Alhaji Aminu Yaro Dogara, along with his wife, was apprehended by the DSS approximately two weeks ago on grounds of an alleged questionable association with the embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
GOOD EVENING NIGERIA had earlier reported that the Arewa Human Rights Lawyers and Justice Center, in a press release, called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to direct the DSS, to immediately release the detained billionaire business man and revered traditional leader, who, it said, is being detained in violation of a Court order, in their desperate hunt for any evidence to indict Emefiele.
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However, AYCF in a statement on Tuesday by its President, Yerima Shettima, said it is regrettable that in the 21st century, “Nigeria’s security agencies would still arrogate to themselves powers of arrest and arbitrary detention of individuals in case in which there is no likelihood or evidence that they committed a crime against legal statute.
“In the instant case of the arrest and detention of the Sarkin Hausawa of Lagos there has been no proper due process of law or order.”Virtually the Sarkin Hausawa and other individuals who are arbitrarily arrested and detained by the DSS are given no explanation as to why they are being arrested, and they are not shown any arrest warrant,” Shettima said in the statement.
Shettima said depriving an individual of their liberty is prohibited under international human rights law. “Article 9 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights decrees that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile”
“This in essence means that regardless of circumstances, it is wrong for the DSS to deprive the Sarkin Hausawa of his liberty without proper due process of law and without having first committed an actual criminal offence against a legal statute.
“As well, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights specifies the protection from arbitrary arrest and detention by the Article 9.The implementation of the Covenants is monitored by the United Nations human rights treaty bodies”.
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AYCF said the incarceration of the Sarkin Hausawa by the DSS for an indefinite time without a trial amounts to violating Nigerian and international laws, particularly human rights laws.
“In recent times, we regret to say, the DSS has perfected the practice of indefinitely incarcerating individuals such as the Sarkin Hausawa who is held merely for being friends with suspended CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele who himself is being detained without due process.
“We wonder at what point being friends with people who are being investigated has become an offence. In that case almost all big personalities in Nigeria who are friends with Emefiele should be arrested and detained.
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“We therefore view the singling out of the Sarkin Hausawa for such irreverent treatment as a deliberate attempt to ridicule the revered traditional institution in the country which is unavoidable.
“We remind President Bola Tinubu to the reality that he is as well a product of struggles for protection of human rights and should therefore not allow human rights breaches to be perpetrated in his administration.
“We demand the immediate unconditional release of the Sarkin Hausawa or in the alternative, the enforcement of his right to be produced before a court of law within 48 hours which has been breeched already by the DSS.
“We finally expect the northern traditional institution to rise to the occasion and speak out in the protection of the sanctity of the traditional heritage which obviously is being scandalised using Sarki Aminu as scapegoat,” Shettima said.