Members of the National Security Services (NSS) will still be able to arrest without a warrant, according to Michael Makue, even after the cabinet approved the National Security Service Act 2014 (Amendment Bill 2023) on Friday, March 24, as the government moves closer to dehorning the dreaded unit by slashing some excessive powers.
The bills that will now head to parliament for debate before they are assented into law by the president, struck off the power of officers from the national security to arrest without a warrant.
But Makuei, who also serves as the minister of information, argued that members of the NSS will not require a warrant to apprehend someone who is breaking the law.
“Each and every South Sudanese citizen, including the National Security Service, has the right to arrest any person found to be committing an offence that does not require a warrant and take him or her to the police or appropriate authority,” Makuei said without citing any legal backing to his claims.
“These two provisions will be deleted, but in the event that any other pervasive activities are discovered, the National Security has the power to arrest and take the people to the appropriate authority, not that the power of arrest is actually with every South Sudanese.”
The council of ministers also approved the financial bills that regulate commercial banks and other financial institutions, Public Financial Management and Accountability Act 2011 (Amendment Bill 2023), the Bank of South Sudan Act 2011 (Amendment Bill 2023), and the Banking Act 2012 Amendment Bill.
Michael Makuei said that although the two provisions of the National Security Act 2014 will be repealed, they will still have the authority to suppress any pervasive activities that are found.
“Any citizen who is found to be committing an offence for which a person can be arrested without a warrant is entitled to arrest that person and take him to the police or the appropriate authority, as the case may be,” Makuei added.
According to Makuei, the right to arrest without a warrant can be used when an individual or a group of people is caught breaking the law.
Makuei added that once that Act is approved by the parliament and signed into law by the President, the National Security Service will have to decide on what to do with the detention facilities they presently have.
“If they continue to maintain them (detention centres), then they are acting against the law as to what they will do with them it is not our concern they can turn them into offices or houses” Makuei noted.
Sections 54 and 55 of the National Security Service Act of 2014, grant the service the authority to make arrests with or without a warrant regardless of the status of service investigations.
The two principals in the revitalised peace deal, President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Riek Machar agreed to have the provision repealed.
Via City Reviews’s
