Share this @internewscast.com
The Department of State Services and the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice have been served with the ruling of a Federal High Court, Abuja, directing them to release the five #BuhariMustGo protesters who were arrested at at Dunamis International Gospel Centre Church in Abuja.
SaharaReporters gathered that Hafsat Shuaibu of the Legal Department of the DSS received the court order on behalf of the agency on July 29, 2021 (today).
“#FreeDunamis5: Lawless DSS and AGF Malami have been served with court orders given by a Federal High Court ordering the unconditional release of the five youths who wore #BuhariMustGo T-Shirts to Dr Paul Enenche’s Dunamis International Gospel Centre on July 4 in Abuja.
“The youths were first arrested and brutalised by the Dunamis Church security before they were handed over to the DSS. Upon realising they have gone to the Federal High Court to enforce their fundamental human rights, the DSS rushed them to a Magistrate’s Court in Mpape where they backdated the time and date of filing the charges.
“The impunity of the Muhammadu Buhari regime is unprecedented and anyone partaking on it now should be reminded will not go unpunished, including the three lawyers at the DSS that took them to a lower court in violation of the orders of the Federal High Court. #RevolutionNow #BuhariMustGo,” human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, said.
Justice Anwuli Chikere had given the order following separate ex-parte applications filed on behalf of the protesters by their lawyer.
The DSS had arrested Ben Manasseh, Anene Udoka, Henry Nwodo, Samuel Larry and Samuel Gabriel on July 4 at the church premises in Abuja for allegedly wearing #BuhariMustGo branded shirts.
The church security was said to have arrested the youths and handed them over to the secret police.
The plaintiffs subsequently sued the DSS, President Muhammadu Buhari, Paul Enenche, the church’s pastor-in-charge, and others for unlawful arrest and detention.
They also asked the court to award N10million each in damages for the violation of their fundamental human rights.
The judge, in his ruling, had ordered that the DSS should release the applicants with immediate effect.
But instead of complying with the order, the agency hurriedly arraigned them on charges of disturbance of public peace against to earn a face-saving justification for keeping them in custody.
Brought before the magistrate for arraignment on Wednesday, the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges. Their lawyer subsequently applied for their bail.
Ruling, the magistrate, Mohammed Zubairu, granted bail to the defendants in the sum of N500,000 with a surety each.
Zubairu said he granted bail to the defendants because the five charges preferred against them were bailable offences, adding that they had been held by the DSS since July 4 without trial.
Source: saharareporters
