22nd May 2025, NewsOrient, Politics, News, Law And Society
Posted By: Samuel Egburonu, Editor

The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the service of court documents on the 2007 Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Professor Pat Utomi, in relation to a suit pending over his alleged plan to establish a shadow government in Nigeria.

Justice James Omotosho, who gave the order, also adjourned the matter to June 25, 2025 for hearing.

NewsOrient reports that the Department of State Service (DSS), which dragged Prof Pat Utomi to the court, said the planned shadow government “constitutes a grave attack on the Constitution” of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The Nigerian Secret Police also alleged that organization of a shadow government will constitute “a threat to the current democratically elected government” in Nigeria.

In the suit instituted on May 13, the DSS expressed concern that such a structure, styled as a “shadow government,” if left unchecked, might incite political unrest, cause inter-group tensions, and embolden other unlawful actors or separatist entities to replicate similar parallel arrangements, all of which pose a grave threat to national security.

The plaintiff wants the court to declare the purported “shadow government” or “shadow cabinet” being planned by Utomi and his associates as “unconstitutional and amounts to an attempt to create a parallel authority not recognized by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”

*The Department of State Services (DSS), in the suit, argued that not only is the planned shadow government an aberration, but it also constitutes a grave attack on the Constitution and a threat to the current democratically elected government.

Justice Omotosho granted an ex parte motion argued by the counsel for the DSS, Akinlolu Kehinde, ordering service of court documents on Utomi, listed as the sole defendant, at his Lagos address using courier service.

The judge subsequently adjourned the case to June 25 for hearing, before which Utomi is expected to have filed his defence.

The DSS is also seeking a declaration that “under Sections 1(1), 1(2) and 14(2)(a) of the Constitution, the establishment or operation of any governmental authority or structure outside the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) is unconstitutional, null, and void”.

The plaintiff wants the court to issue an order of perpetual injunction, restraining Utomi, his agents and associates “from further taking any steps towards the establishment or operation of a ‘shadow government,’ ‘shadow cabinet’ or any similar entity not recognized by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”

~ Published By NewsOrient Network

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