…PDP urges DSS, state govt to release detainees, respect rule of law

By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Benue State, has expressed outrage over the detention of a 82-year-old woman and Chairman of Ushongo Local Government Area of the state, Mrs. Veronica Gajir, and three of her colleagues from Ado, Guma and Katsina-Ala LGAs by the Department of State Services, DSS, on the alleged orders of the state government.

The party berated Governor Hyacinth Alia for flouting a subsisting court order in the government’s face off with the elected council chairmen in the state, warning that the governor’s action was an invitation to anarchy and lawlessness.

Addressing the media, yesterday, in Makurdi, the state Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Bemgba Iortyom, wondered why the octogenarian and her three colleagues had remained in the DSS detention since July 3, 2023, without being charged to court, after they honoured an invitation by the service.

He said: “Today marks over 72 hours of the detention of the council chairmen by DSS without stating what their offence is or charging them to court, in the face of which it is plausible to infer that their offence could only be a refusal to surrender to the illegality of their purported suspension from office under the orders of Governor Alia.

“Those lawfully elected council chairmen were invited and detained by the DSS at the request of the governor, who has vowed to remove them from office by whatever means possible to him, in furtherance of his policy of vendetta and witch-hunt against the immediate past administration of Governor Samuel Ortom.

“And earlier today, lawyers and the bailiff of a Makurdi Magistrate’s Court in seeking to serve processes of the court on the DSS headquarters in Makurdi for the enforcement of the fundamental human rights of the detained council chairmen were denied access to the directorate’s premises, neither were they attended to by anyone for the purpose of their assignment there.

“We call on the DSS to beware of its professional image and steer clear of Governor Alia’s desire to perpetrate impunity and foist an order of lawlessness on the state.”