The Presidency on Wednesday refuted claims that the government had compromised the Rule of Law by delaying the release of Sahara Reporters publisher Omoyele Sowore and former National Security Adviser, (NSA, Sambo Dasuki months and years after court orders.
“The government is not compromising anything,” Presidential media aide Garba Shehu said at an interview on Channels Television programme, Politics Today.
“The decision to keep them there (in detention) was strongly founded in the law.”
Messrs Sowore and Dasuki had been in detention by the Department of State Security Service, DSS, despite court orders granting them bail.
But, Mr Shehu refuted claims by Nigerians over the government’s alleged compromise on the Rule of Law, saying that the government had done nothing extra-judicial in holding them in detention.
“In a situation where the fundamental right of an individual is a threat to that of the larger society, the right of the individuals have to be sacrificed,” Mr Shehu said.
He said their eventual release was because the government “wants to set an important example of obedience to the law that even when you disagree with what the court says you should do.”
