In the early hours of Saturday, DSS operatives invaded the homes of a number of Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the Federal High Court, arrested them and recovered about N360 million the agency alleged was proceeds of graft.
The affected Justices of the Supreme Court were, Sylvanus Ngwuta and Inyang Okoro. The affected Judges of the Federal High Court were Muazu Pindiga, Adeniyi Ademola, Abdullahi Liman and Nnamdi Dimgba.
Reacting to the arrest of the judges by the operatives of the DSS, Friday night, through the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu in a statement, the Presidency said it was the aim of government to stamp out corruption and not to attack judicial officers.
Shehu said the President had high regards for the Judiciary and would never undermine its independence.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, yesterday, called on the Department of State Services, DSS, to immediately and unconditionally release the two justices of the Supreme Court, whose homes were raided by its operatives in the early hours of Saturday, and later taken into custody.
While Femi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria, has asked members of the legal profession to blame themselves for the harassment of judges by the security agencies, some other SANs like Ozekhome, Uztaz, Quakers, Owonikoko have condemn arrest.
