Obono Obla, a special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on prosecution may have inadvertently admitted that the DSS raid on the homes of senior judges in the country violated the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA.
Obla’s comment exonerated Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers in preventing the abduction of Justice Mohammed Liman of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt.
Obla was a guest of a morning show, Sunrise Daily on Channels TV on Monday, October 10, 2016, where he admitted to the limitation of ACJA to Abuja alone, in a frantic bid to justify the powers of the DSS to arrest anyone at anytime.
His comment on the TV show has now further exposed the need for the Department of State Security Services, DSS, to confirm to Nigerians as to whether it obtained the necessary warrant in conducting its failed Port Harcourt operation.
The DSS accused Governor Wike of obstructing justice and acting inappropriately when he intervened in the botched abduction of the federal judge.
Under the Nigerian laws, search warrants obtained in one state of the country cannot be executed in another state except it is endorsed by a magistrate or a judge equal in rank to the one that issued the warrants.
If ACJA is limited to Abuja, the question then is: Did the DSS adhere to the rules governing the procurement and execution of a search warrant in Rivers State?
