The Department of State Services (DSS) yesterday explained that its continued detention of the suspected mastermind of the April 14 blast in Nyanya, Abuja, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, is based on a valid court order .
Counsel for the agency, Mr. Clifford Osagie, told a Federal High Court in Abuja that investigation in the case had been concluded and the case file is being transferred to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), for further action.
Arguing the DSS’ counter-affidavit to a fundamental rights enforcement application filed by Ogwuche, in which he is challenging his continued detention, seeking freedom and asking for N100million compensation for what he called unlawful detention,Osagie said the plaintiff’s fundamental rights have not been violated by his continued detention.
He said that the DSS, on September 11 this year, obtained an order ex-parte from Justice Gabriel Kolawole (also of the Federal High Court, Abuja) to detain the applicant for 90 days.
Osagie, who tendered the detention/remand warrant and similar other ones obtained from a Chief Magistrate Court in Kaduna, said the remand warrant obtained from Justice Kolawole was in accordance with the provision of Section 27 of the Terrorism Prevention Act (TPA) 2013.
He argued that as against the contention of the applicant that he was unlawfully detained, Osagie said the DSS had acted within the confines of the law and that it had not violated the applicant’s rights.
“It is evident that the DSS has complied with the requirement of the Constitution in its remand of the applicant. We complied with the law and the Constitution. So, there is no breach of his fundamental rights,” Osagie said.
He said that contrary to Ogwuche’s claim, the provision of Section 27 of the TPA is not in contravention of Section 35 of the Constitution. He argued that in the case of capital offence, including terrorism, sub-section 4 of Section 35 of the Constitution does not always apply. He further argued that DSS’ action finds favour under Section 35(7) of the Constitution.
Osagie said that the steps taken so far by DSS in the case were within law and Constitution. He urged the court to dismiss the application and refuse Ogwuche’s prayer for N100m damages, arguing that he was not entitled to any compensation because he had suffered no injuries.
Replying on point of law, applicant’s lawyer, Nureini Jimoh faulted the remand warrants obtained by the DSS from Kaduna, arguing that they were obtained outside jurisdiction.
He argued that his client was unlawfully detained and that he was entitled to the N100m damages he was claiming. He urged the court to grant his client’s application and set him free because there was no basis for his continued detention.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola has, however, invited the AGF to appear before the court, as a friend of the court, to address the contention by the applicant that Section 27 of the TPA was in conflict with Section 35 of the Constitution.
By the invitation, the AGF is expected to appear before the court on the next adjourned date to argue whether or not Section 27 of the TPA was constitutional and not in conflict with Section 35(4) and (7) of the Constitution and should be retained.
The DSS had, shortly after the blast, named Ogwuche as one of the brains behind the incident and declared him wanted.
On learning that the suspect had allegedly escaped to Sudan, the Federal Government, through the Office of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) initiated extradition proceedings and filed a two-count charge to that effect.
Oguwche was successfully brought to Nigeria on July 15 and has since then been held in the custody of the DSS who recently procured an ex-parte order to further detain him for 90 days. The Fed Govt had, since the suspect was brought back into the country, been unable to proceed against him in view of the disagreement between officials of the Federal Ministry of Justice, the DSS and the Nigeria Police Force over which agency should handle Ogwuche’s prosecution.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court on November 24 struck out the two-count charge for lack of diligent prosecution.
Count one of the charge filed on behalf of the IGP by Oloye Torugbene ( a Deputy Superintendent of Police), accused the suspect of conspiring with others (at large), to commit an act of terrorism by detonating improvised explosive devices at Nyanya Motor Park, which resulted in the death of 75 persons and injuring over a hundred other persons.
The count reads: “That you, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, male, and others now at large, on April 14, 2014 at Nyanya, FCT, Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did facilitate the activities of persons engaged in an act of terrorism.”
