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Breaking News: Court Freed, Awarded 9 Million Naira Compensation To 16 Suspects, Nigeria Secret Police, Rearrests, Dumps Them In Prison

  MARCH 07 , 2023 | EASTERN PILOT Report By: Reporters | Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have allegedly kidnapped 16 Ni...

 




MARCH 07 , 2023 | EASTERN PILOT

Report By: Reporters |

Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have allegedly kidnapped 16 Nigerians who were recently discharged by a Federal High Court in Yola, the Adamawa State capital. The DSS, believed to have acted on the orders of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami on February 23, 2023, reportedly whisked away the 16 persons shortly after they were freed from Kuje prison by a court order enforcing their fundamental human rights to liberty.

Malami and the secret police, DSS are fond of flagrantly disobeying valid court judgments and ensuring the rearrest of persons after they were released. It is however disturbing that they have again been locked up, despite the fact that no fresh charges were filed against them. SaharaReporters on July 21, 2022, reported that "a Federal High Court sitting in Yola, Adamawa State, on Thursday ordered substituted service on the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and two others in a case of an alleged violation of human rights, involving unlawful detention”.

The two other entities are the DSS and the Comptroller General of Nigeria Correctional Services. Justice Abdul-aziz Anka of the Federal High Court in Yola granted the order in response to an application filed on behalf of 15 applicants by their lawyer, Lionard Nzadon. The applicants are Adamu Eli, Edan Andrawus, Dimliura Akila, James Na'abi, Amos Tafida, Usman Saudi, Munriura Amos, Shehu Audu, Godwin Umar, Sumobiu Yakubu, Gaman Yoyila, Stanley Kongo, Oliver Haniel and two others.

In the application, the applicants claimed that their fundamental right to freedom was violated by the AGF on whose directives they were illegally arrested by operatives of DSS and subsequently remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja. SaharaReporters gathered that the applicants are among 44 persons tried and discharged by Justice Anka on June 8, 2022, but were bizarrely rearrested, moved to Abuja and incarcerated at the Kuje prison. As further gathered, they were detained for eight years, and tried for five years on alleged illegal possession of firearms without substantial evidence, according to the trial judge, Justice Anka; who subsequently discharged them.

Before discharging them after ruling on “a no case submission,” Justice Anka held that the prosecution failed to diligently prosecute by calling only three witnesses, as against what was in their list of witnesses as submitted to the court, according to one of their lawyers, Daniel Danladi. However, just after passing his judgement, operatives of DSS stormed the court to forcibly take them into custody against the law. "The prosecution knowing what the outcome of the ruling on our 'no case submission' will be like, they filed another case, charged the same people standing trial; which is an abuse of court process, because you cannot stand trial in two cases having the same elements, the same ingredients. In law, this amounts to double jeopardy.

"So they arranged with the DSS and laid a siege to the court to forcibly take them from court so that they can stand another trial. "Now the position of the law is very clear, DSS are not supposed to be involved in this kind of case. They're not in any way made for this kind of arrest. But it seems they were getting orders from above; I learnt that it was on the orders of the Attorney General of the Federation (Abubakar Malami)," Danladi told Saharareporters. The DSS allegedly obtained a warrant of detention from an incompetent court of jurisdiction, Upper Area Court IV, presided over by Magistrate Ibrahim Wulanda.

"Normally the practice is that you don't obtain a warrant to further detain a suspect without presenting them in court. In this case, the magistrate who granted the warrant later said he was manipulated or misled. "He regretted his action, maybe he was influenced by the DSS. I learnt the magistrate said they got the order without giving him full details of the matter," Barr Danladi said. After seven months of illegal incarceration at the Kuje prison without making a single court appearance, they were freed by a court order obtained on February 15, 2023. However, they were again swiftly rounded up and moved to a DSS detention facility.

The latest rearrest came after Justice Anka granted an order of enforcement of their fundamental rights to liberty and awarded N250,000 damages to each of the applicants against the AGF and DSS. He also granted the legal cost of N5,000,000 in their favour.

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