A former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar
Tsav, has said that the continued detention of ex-Governor Gabriel Suswam by
the Department of Security Services (DSS)is a drift to the old days of military
rule.
Tsav in an interview with our correspondent in Makurdi on
Tuesday, alleged that the action of the anti-graft body was improper, saying
Suswam should have been charged to court within 24-hour of arrest.
“It is not proper that Suswam continued to remain in
detention by the DSS. He should have been charged to court within 24-hours to
enable Nigerians know why he is being held. The EFCC keeping him in their
custody for nearly three months now reminds me of the old military days,” he
said.
Tsav, who is also a Commissioner at the Public Compliant
Commission in Benue State, added that there was no substance in the report
purportedly sent to the DSS by the Benue State, suggesting that Suswam could be
a security threat if released.
In a related development, a pressure group, the Benue
Concerned Citizens has requested members of the National Assembly and the
international community to wade into the continued detention of former Governor
of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam.
In a briefing yesterday, the group decried the prolonged
detention of Suswam, since February 25. by the Department of State Services
(DSS) in a facility in Abuja without trial or access to lawyers and family
members.
In a statement they later issued, signed by 20 indigenes of
Benue, read by Tim Nyor, the group decried the “conspiratorial complicities”
between the Benue State government and security institutions that led to the
ex-governor’s detention without trial.
By Hope Abah & John Chuks Azu
