Human Rights Commission to probe invasion of Judges homes by DSS’

             

The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Ben Angwe, has said that the commission would immediately commence investigation into the recent invasion of homes and arrests of some judicial officers across the country by the operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).

Prof. Angwe, who spoke in Abuja yesterday while addressing a coalition of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy (LDD) and a non-governmental organisation, Citizens for Good Governance (CGG), also assured that the NHRC would neither be partial nor take orders from any quarters in the course of carrying out the investigation.

The coalition had marched to the commission’s headquarters in Maitama district of Abuja in protest of what they described as “revenge operation” against the Judiciary by the secret police.

He noted that NHRC had before now been waiting for petitions from the public on the alleged arrest of the judges and violation of their human rights but did not receive any.

He further stated that now that a formal petition had been submitted to the human rights body, it would not hesitate to go into a comprehensive probe of the matter in order to unravel what actually transpired between the security operatives and the affected judges.

The protesters also stormed the Federal High Court headquarters in the nation’s capital and terminated peaceful protest at the National Assembly, to protest the call on judges whose homes were raided by the DSS to step aside from office.

Earlier before the protest kick-started, the convener of the coalition, Barrister Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, addressed journalists, saying that heeding to the call on the embattled Judges to step down was a victory for tyranny and gradual return to what he called “Kokomo democracy.”