The Department of State Services (DSS) has instituted legal action against Prof. Pat Utomi, former presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), over his declaration to set up a shadow government in Nigeria.
Filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja under suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/937/2025, the DSS accuses Utomi of planning a parallel structure aimed at causing instability. The suit names Utomi as the sole defendant.
According to the DSS, the move represents “a grave attack on the Constitution,” and is “intended to create chaos and destabilise the country.”
The legal team, led by Senior Advocate of Nigeria Akinlolu Kehinde, maintains that the plan violates democratic norms and the supremacy of the 1999 Constitution.
“This structure, styled as a ‘shadow government’, if left unchecked, might incite political unrest, 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 suit reads.
The DSS is urging the court to declare Utomi’s “shadow government or cabinet” unconstitutional, asserting it 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 seeks 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… is unconstitutional, null, and void.”
An order of perpetual injunction is also being sought to restrain Utomi and his associates “from further taking any steps towards the establishment or operation of a ‘shadow government’, ‘shadow cabinet’ or any similar entity not recognised by the Constitution.”
The DSS cites Section 1(1), which establishes the Constitution’s supremacy over all persons and authorities in Nigeria, and Section 1(2), which prohibits governance outside its provisions.
As at the time of filing this report, the case had not yet been assigned to a judge.
However, the action by the DSS has drawn counter-reactions.
Professor Anthony Kila, political economist and Director of the Commonwealth Institute for Advanced Professional Studies (CIAPS), expressed support for the initiative.
Utomi, who leads the Big Tent Coalition, unveiled the shadow cabinet earlier in May, calling it a “national emergency response” to deteriorating economic and security conditions under the Tinubu-led administration.
Reacting during the Cambridge African Round Table (CARt), Prof. Kila said: “Not only did I not see anything wrong with the idea, but I fully support it.”
