A group, Northwest Alliance for Citizens Freedom, has demanded the immediate release of the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, who has been on detention in the Department of State Services(DSS) facility.

A statement on Tuesday by the President General of the Northwest Alliance for Citizens Freedom (NWCF), Lawal Ibrahim Jamaare, condemned the continued detention of Bawa by DSS, describing it as“ “a blatant contravention of his rights protected under the 1999 Constitution.”

According to the statement,”The Northwest Alliance for Citizens Freedom has watched with stoical calm, events unfolding since the arbitrary arrest and unexplained detention of Abdulrasheed Bawa, after his suspension as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“NWCF notes especially, that Abdulrasheed Bawa has spent 33 days in the custody of the Department of State Services since June 14, hours after his suspension by President Bola Tinubu.

“We note with utter perplexity that since Bawa’s arrest, the DSS has kept silent on the specific offences for which he was arrested, the level of investigation, and whether charges would be filed against him in court.

“We are deeply concerned and agitated that this, and similar unlawful detentions and abuses by the DSS continue with impunity, despite Nigeria’s Constitution and other domestic laws prohibiting and criminalising such acts.

“The detention of Bawa in particular, with his actual whereabouts still unknown, leaving his family to continue to search for answers,amounts to a violation of Nigeria’s binding obligations in the Geneva Convention’s human and Peoples Rights Charter, as well as regional and international human rights and criminal law instruments that prohibit arbitrary arrest and unlawful detention.”

The group said the continued detention of Bawa by the DSS for over three weeks now, is unconstitutional and a breach of his fundamental rights under the 1999 Constitution and other relevant laws that guarantee personal liberty and provide that an arrested or detained person should be held in a place authorized by law.

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