THE Department of State Services (DSS) has dragged the 2007 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Patrick Okedinachi Utomi, also known as Pat Utomi, to court over his announced plan to establish a shadow government in the country.
In the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/937/2025, filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja, with Utomi as sole defendant, the plaintiff is contending that the move by Utomi was intended to create chaos and destabilise the country.
The DSS, in the suit filed by a team of lawyers, led by Akinlolu Kehinde, 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 democratically elected government that is currently in place.
It expressed concern that such a structure, styled as a ‘shadow government’, if left unchecked, may incite political unrest, cause intergroup 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 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).”
Among the grounds on which the plaintiff is hinging its prayers includes that, Section 1(1) of the Constitution declares its supremacy and binding force on all persons and authorities in Nigeria.
It added that Section 1(2) prohibits the governance of Nigeria or any part thereof except in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
According to the DSS, Section 14(2Xa) states that sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria, from whom government through the Constitution derives all its powers and authority, contending that Utomi’s proposed shadow government lacks constitutional recognition and authority, thereby contravening the aforementioned provisions.
It states that it has monitored, “through intelligence reports and open source material, public statements and interviews granted by the defendant, Professor Patrick Utomi, in which he announced the purported establishment of what he termed a ‘shadow government’ or ‘shadow cabinet,’ comprising of several persons that make up its ‘Minister.’
“The ‘shadow government’ or ‘shadow cabinet’ is an unregistered and unrecognizsed body claiming to operate as an alternative government, contrary to the provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”
The suit, filed on May 13, has not been assigned to any judge for hearing.
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