Illegal Detention: Court Orders Substituted Service On AGF, DSS And CG Of Correctional Service

A Federal High Court sitting in Yola, presided over by Justice Abdulaziz Anka has ordered substituted service on the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, DSS and CG of Correctional Center for an alleged violation of human rights and unlawful detention.

The Court granted the order following an application filed by the counsel of the 15 applicants involved in the case, Barr 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 brought before Justice Anka, 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 Center.

It was gathered by this newspaper that the applicants are among 44 persons tried and discharged by Justice Anka on June 8, 2022, for want of evidence in Yola but were rearrested same day and moved to Abuja and incarcerated at the Kuje prison.

It was further gathered that the applicants were detained for eight years, tried for five years on alleged illegal possession of firearms without substantial evidence, according to the trial judge, Justice Anka; who consequently discharged them.

The Court, in its ruling had discharged the defendant on ‘a no case submission’, Justice Anka, held that “the prosecution has failed to diligently prosecute by calling only three witnesses, as against what contains in their list of witnesses submitted to the court,” according to one of their Counsel, Barr 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 that have been discharged on charge that have the same the same elements and the same ingredients.

“So they arranged with the DSS and made a siege to the court to forcibly take them from court so that they can stand another trial,” the Counsel to the applicants said.

“Now the position of the law is very clear, DSS is not supposed to be involved in this kind of case. They’re not in anyway 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 added

The DSS, allegedly obtained a fraudulent warrant of detention from an incompetent court of jurisdiction, Upper Area Court IV, presided 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, may be 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.

The applicants who are currently locked up in Kuje prison, were part of the inmates who escaped after the facility was attacked by terrorists recently but later returned to the prison.

The 15 applicants had through their Counsel filed an application seeking the enforcement of their fundamental right to freedom at federal High Court in Yola.

Justice Anka who grated the substituted service order, fixed September 26, 2022 for hearing of the application.