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The Department of State Services, DSS, has dragged Prof Pat Utomi before the Federal High Court in Abuja, over his proposed shadow government in the country.
Utomi is the sole defendant in the suit filed on May 13, by a team of lawyers, led by Akinlolu Kehinde, and marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/937/2025, in which the DSS described the plan as a ploy to create chaos and destabilise the country.
It further contends that the planned shadow government is an aberration, and also constitutes a grave attack on the Constitution and a threat to the democratically elected government that is currently in place.The DSS expressed concern that the proposed ‘shadow government’, by the former presidential hopeful, 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.”
Consequently, the plaintiff wants the court to declare the purported “shadow government” or”’shadow cabinet” as proposed by Utomi and his associates as “unconstitutional and amounts to an attempt to create a parallel authority not recognised by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”
Furthermore, it is 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 DSS 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).”
It insists that Section 1(1) of the Constitution declares its supremacy and binding force on all persons and authorities in Nigeria; that Section 1(2) prohibits the governance of Nigeria or any part thereof except in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
In the same vein, it argued that 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 claimed to have 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).”
No judge has been assigned to handle the suit yet.
