{"id":67328,"date":"2025-06-04T13:48:28","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T13:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=67328"},"modified":"2025-06-04T13:48:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T13:48:28","slug":"dss-drags-pat-utomi-to-court-cites-threat-to-national-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/06\/04\/dss-drags-pat-utomi-to-court-cites-threat-to-national-security\/","title":{"rendered":"DSS Drags Pat Utomi to Court, Cites Threat to National Security"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Anifowoshe Oladipupo<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Department of State Services (DSS), has filed an application before the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to restrain Prof. Pat Utomi, a former presidential candidate and convener of the proposed \u201cshadow government,\u201d from making further public statements or holding gatherings in relation to the initiative.<\/p>\n<p>In the suit filed on Wednesday, the DSS urged the court to issue an interlocutory injunction against Utomi, currently abroad, ahead of his planned return to Nigeria on June 6.<\/p>\n<p>According to the security agency, intelligence reports suggest that Utomi intends to stage road shows, protests, media engagements, and other public sensitization activities to promote the shadow government initiative.<\/p>\n<p>The DSS, through its legal team led by Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), argued that such activities could incite public unrest and pose a serious threat to national unity, public order, and internal security.<\/p>\n<p>The agency stated that Utomi\u2019s actions, if not checked, may mirror the scale of disruption witnessed during the #EndSARS protests of 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe defendant intends to stage road shows and rallies capable of attracting large crowds, disrupting public peace, and provoking riots and violent protests,\u201d the DSS said in a supporting affidavit.<\/p>\n<p>The application seeks to bar Utomi, his associates, agents, or anyone acting on his behalf from organizing or participating in any public events, including rallies, lectures, interviews, or publications that promote the idea of a shadow government pending the determination of the substantive suit marked FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/937\/2025.<\/p>\n<p>The DSS contends that Utomi\u2019s comments and actions, even before the case was filed have sought to undermine lawful authority and interfere with judicial processes.<\/p>\n<p>The legal battle sets the stage for a tense clash between the constitutional rights to free speech and assembly and the government\u2019s duty to maintain national security and order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Anifowoshe Oladipupo The Department of State Services (DSS), has filed an application before the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking to restrain Prof. Pat Utomi, a former presidential candidate and convener of the proposed \u201cshadow government,\u201d from making further public statements or holding gatherings in relation to the initiative. In the suit filed on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":67329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-67328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67330,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67328\/revisions\/67330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}