DSS asks court to bar Utomi from shadow govt activities

The Department of State Services, DSS, has approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, praying it to restrain a former presidential candidate, Prof. Patrick Utomi, from making public comments or engaging in any form of rally, relating to his announced plan to establish a shadow government in the country.

The security agency had accused Utomi who was the candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, in the 2007 presidential election, of attempting to illegally usurp the executive powers of President Bola Tinubu.

In a fresh application it filed on Wednesday, through its team of lawyers led by Mr. Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, DSS told the court that it got an intelligence that the defendant, Utomi, who is currently outside the country, has concluded plans to return on June 6 to engage in protests, road shows and media interviews.

It argued that the planned activities were aimed to instigate citizens, in furtherance of the defendant’s bid to establish an illegitimate government, an issue that is the subject matter of a suit that is pending before the court.

Consequently, it prayed the court for: “An order of interlocutory injunction, restraining the defendant/respondent (Utomi), his agents, privies, associates, servants, workers or any person acting through him, from staging road shows, rallies, public lectures or any form of public gathering, newspaper publications, television programs, jingles or any other public enlightenment programme (s) aimed at sensitizing, instigating, propagating or in any way promoting the purported ‘shadow government/shadow cabinet’ or its objectives or goals, with the view to establishing the said ‘shadow government’, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.”

According to the Applicant, if not restrained, Utomi’s proposed rallies, road shows and actions, would “constitute a serious threat to the public order, safety and national unity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The Applicant identified itself as the agency statutorily empowered to safeguard the internal security of the country and prevent threats to lawful authority of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and its constituent institutions.