Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed June 25 to hear a suit filed by the Department of State Services (DSS) against Pat Utomi, a professor of political economy, over his recent launch of a “shadow government”.
The DSS is seeking a declaration that the initiative is unconstitutional and poses a threat to national security.
According to the DSS, the shadow government may incite political unrest, cause inter-group tensions, and embolden other unlawful actors or separatist entities to replicate similar parallel arrangements. The agency argues that this would pose a grave threat to national security.
The court granted the DSS’s application to serve court documents on Utomi at his Lagos address through courier service. The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/937/2025, seeks a declaration that the shadow government is in violation of the Nigerian constitution.
The secret Police is praying the court to declare the purported “shadow government” or “shadow cabinet” 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)”.
The agency also sought 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 further prayed 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)”.
The case will be heard on June 25, where the court will consider the agency’s prayers.
