•Court permits DSS to detain alleged Nigerian ISIS for 60 days
Alex Enumah in Abuja and Laleye Dipo in Minna
The Chief Judge of Niger State, Justice Halima Ibrahim Abdulmalik, has accused the police of frustrating the quick dispensation of justice by not sending case files of detainees to the legal department of the ministry of justice for advice.
This was as Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, yesterday, gave permission to the State Security Service (SSS), to keep in its custody, a Nigerian, Emmanuel Osase, over allegations bordering on being a member of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Speaking at the Old Minna Correctional Centre in the state capital on Tuesday, Justice Abdulmalik said the action of the police has left many detainees in the correctional centres for between four and five years without trial.
“This is a deliberate act to incarcerate these inmates. You keep on giving the same excuses of case files that are yet to be duplicated.
“You keep on repeating the same story that investigation is ongoing, for how long will you complete Investigation? This is not fair. You can’t unjustly incarcerate people in prison on the pretence of Investigation is ongoing,” he said.
The chief judge, who last week at the Suleja Correctional Centre, set free one Aliyu Adamu after being in detention for one year without trial, advised the police legal department to work closely with the the office of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) in the Ministry of Justice to bring about speedy administration of Justice saying that such nonchalant attitude and ineptitude will no longer be tolerated.
She also directed the Director of Public Prosecution DPP in the state Ministry of Justice to speed up action on the duplication case files for speedy administration of Justice.
Meanwhile, Justice Ekwo, who gave permission to the DSSto keep Osase in its custody, said the defendant was to be in custody for 60 days, within which the security agency was expected to have concluded its investigation.
The court’s decision was sequel to an exparte application marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/409/2024, and filed by the SSS.
Counsel to the DSS, Mr A. A Ugee, had told the court that the matter was brought pursuant to Section 66(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022.
He prayed the court for an order enabling the SSS to detain Osase for 60 days pending the conclusion of investigation.
Responding, Justice Ekwo, in a short ruling held that, “Upon studying the averments in the affidavit, I hereby grant the relief as prayed”, just as he adjourned the matter till June 3, 2024.
Osase was arrested on March 11, for allegedly propagating the messages of the terrorist group, opposing the Democratic system of government in Nigeria, and calling for terrorist attacks on Nigeria and its symbols of sovereignty.
Deponent of the affidavit, Mr Ahmad Abubakar, from the Legal Service Department, DSS National Headquarters, Abuja, disclosed that the respondent was arrested by a team of personnel from the applicant’s office for alleged “membership and propagation of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist messages.
This, he said, included opposition to the Democratic System of Government and the call for staging terrorist attacks against Nigeria State and its symbols of sovereignty.”
Abubakar stated that Osase was jailed for five years for terrorism-related offences in France and was deported after the completion of his sentence.
He noted that from the service’s preliminary investigation, Osase was still involved in terrorist activities, adding that the respondent appeared not to have renounced his terrorist ideologies, as he continues to engage with the proscribed pro-ISIS online media group known as “al-Alawn Media Foundation”.
