FORMER House Speaker and attorney Nizam Mohammed on Saturday urged citizens to abandon silence on the Government's use of emergency powers, noting that the public has a responsibility to demand accountability.

His comments come amid a wave of public scrutiny over the State of Emergency Powers and Preventive Detention Orders (PDOs) following the month-long detention and recent release of businessman Dominic Hadeed and his wife Genevieve.

Though Mohammed, a former chairman of the Police Service Commission, did not refer to the case specifically, he spoke of being troubled by what he said appeared to be a sense of complacency or worry among the general populace.