A Borno State born Pastor, has said that he may
sue the Department of State Security (DSS) over an alleged violation of
his fundamental human rights.
This comes after
his revelation that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) took a
N7billion bribe from current President Goodluck Jonathan for his
re-election bid.
President Goodluck Jonathan (r) and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor at the presidential villa in Abuja in 2013. Photo: premiumtimesng.com
The
pastor, Pastor Paul Dikwa had been petitioned by the DSS director
general, Mr. Ita Ekpenyong, through his lawyers from Right And Democracy
Volunteers.
When he came to the DSS, his lawyers were not
allowed into the interrogation room, where Dikwa was stripped naked and
made to make statement under duress.
“On the 16th March,
2015, Pastor Dikwa returned to the DSS headquarter with his lawyers in
Abuja under their invitation through one Mr. Paul. The lawyer was denied
being present during the chat. The interrogation officers,
Felix and Tony strip the pastor naked and ordered him to make a
statement under duress when they ordered him to copy verbatim a
recanting statement scripted by the DSS,” the petition read.
The
petition was shown by Daily Post and in it, they threatened the DSS
with a civil suit and said that the DSS denied Pastor Dikwa his right
to freedom of expression, respect to the dignity of his person, and
right to liberty, all of which were conveniently violated by the DSS.
The lawyers demanded an apology from the DSS and a compensation as enshrined in Chapter 4 of the constitution, adding that “in
this circumstances, we believe that Pastor Dikwa is entitled to N300
million compensation and a guarantee that he would no more be
intimidated or harassed by operatives of the DSS without regard to the
laws of this country.”
“Having regard to the exigency of the situation, we have instructed our
legal team to proceed to file a court action to protect the fundamental
rights of Pastor Dikwa if after 7 days hereof the DSS in its wisdom
fails to remediate the matter in compliance with the petition. Pastor
Dikwa may be a lone victim of circumstances, but he shall not be alone
in fighting this violation of his rights,” said the petitioner.
CAN
had reacted to the claims by the pastor and said the allegation is a
complete lie and just one of the many evil plots to dent the image of
CAN’s leadership as well as to rubbish its integrity and make it morally
incapable of leading Christians in these trying times.
No comments:
Post a Comment