SAN FRANCISCO, December 05, (THEWILL) – The suspected mastermind of the April 14 Nyanya bomb blast in Abuja, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche, Friday, slammed a N100 million suit against the Department of State Security (DSS) for wrongful detention beyond the timeframe allowed by the constitution.
This came on a day the DSS told a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja that investigations into Oguche’s involvement in the motor park bombing that killed over 75 persons and injured several others had been concluded and the case file transferred to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) for prosecution.
DSS lawyer, Cliff Osagie, who disclosed this to the court presided by Justice Adeniyi Ademola was responding to a suit filed by Ogwuche for an order of court releasing him having been held beyond the limit of days allowed by the constitution to hold a suspect.
Justice Ademola had last week struck out a two- count charge which the police filed against Ogwuche for lack of diligent prosecution.
But Ogwuche had followed up on this as his counsel, Ahmed Raji (SAN) approached the court challenging Ogwuche’s continuous detention , saying it was a breach of Section 35(4) of the Constitution, which says that no accused person should be detained beyond 20 days.
In his defence however, the DSS lawyer argued that the Service did not breach any law by detaining Ogwuche for this long, premising his submission on the provision of Section 27 of the Terrorism Prevention Act (TPA) which provides that an accused on suspicion of having committed a capital offence can be detained for 90 days which can be renewed on expiration.
Osagie added that the DSS had earlier obtained a remand order from a chief magistrate court in Kaduna and the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
But this argument was countered by Ogwuche’s lawyer who argued that Section 27 of the TPA be declared unconstitutional because it apparently contradicted section 35(4) of the Constitution.
Justice Ademola, who thereafter fixed further hearing in the matter to December 17 , summoned the AGF or any of his officers to come and give an opinion on the constitutionality of section 27 of the Terrorism Prevention Act 2013 vis a vis section 35 (4) and (7) of the 1999 Constitution.
The DSS lawyer, Osagie , had asked the court to discountenance the argument that section 27 of the TPA be struck out., saying the argument was made in error as the Ogwuche was arrested and detained in connection with a capital offence.
Maintaining that the applicant was in lawful custody and investigation had been concluded with the case file already forwarded to the AGF for prosecution, Osagie urged the court to dismiss Ogwuche’s suit for lacking in merit, describing it as frivolous and abuse of court process.
Ogwuche through his counsel, Ahmed Raji SAN had brought an application pursuant to Order 2, Rule (1),(2),(3) of the Fundamental Enforcement Procedure rule and Sections 34,35,36,37 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution seeking for the enforcement of his fundamental human right.
In the suit, the DSS and the AGF were joined as defendants. But the court later struck out AGF’s name on the request of the applicant.
Ogwuche’s counsel had argued in his application that the Interpol had placed a red alert on the applicant based on the request of the Federal Government . This, he said, is contrary to the impression that it was the interpol that placed the red alert on its own.
Maintaining that the two-count charge in which Ogwuche was arrested and detained had been struck out by the court for lack diligent prosecution, Raji noted that the charge was the foundation of the extradition order which led to the arrest of the applicant.
While arguing that it was assumed that the state had concluded all its investigations before requesting for the extradition order, Raji said further detention of the complainant in the DSS custody without arraignment was illegal and pre-judicial.
The lawyer therefore declared that the ex parte order obtained by the DSS to detain the applicant for 90 days was a mis-carriage of justice, saying Section 27 of the Terrorism Prevention Act act cannot override the provisions Section 35 of the Constitution which preserved the right to liberty of every citizen.
Urging the court to compel the DSS to release the complainant conditionally or unconditionally, admit him to administrative bail or arraign him within 48 hours of the judgement, he also requested for N100million as damages for the wrongful detention of the applicant.
