The Abuja division of Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has been asked to nullify the bail earlier granted to four of the 12 detained associates of embattled Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo also called Sunday Igboho.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu had, last Wednesday, granted bail to the 12 detainees who had spent five weeks in the custody of the DSS.
They were arrested on July 1, 2021, at Igboho’s Ibadan residence raided by DSS operatives around 1 am.
But, in a fresh motion marked FHC/ABJ/CS/647/2021 and filed on Monday, the Department of State Security Service (DSS), specifically urged the court to set aside the bail granted to Amudat Babatunde, Abideen Shittu, Jamiu Oyetunji, and Bamidele Sunday.
The motion, which was filed by counsel to the DSS, Idowu Awo, urged Justice Obiora Egwuatu to remand the four detainees “pending their arraignment during court vacation.”
However, counsel to the detainees, Pelumi Olajengbesi, has described the fresh application by the DSS as “laughable”.
“We have seen the new application filed by the DSS to continue the incarceration of innocent people who have been in their custody for over a month. It is laughable and turned logic upside down that after over a month in the DSS custody, the DSS still needs more days to punish them. I can assure you this will fail,”
he said.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu admitted four of them to bail in the sum of N10 million each with two sureties in the like sum, while the remaining eight were granted bail in the sum of N5 million with one surety each.
The judge said the sureties, who must be residents in Abuja and have properties, must swear to an affidavit of means.
One of the sureties, the court held, must be an employee of the federal government on grade level 12 and above.
The judge also ordered that the title deeds of the said property must be verified by the court registrar and the DSS, in addition to evidence of three years of tax payment.
The sureties are also to submit all travel documents to the court.
Meanwhile, the four applicants whose bail request was opposed were asked to report to the office of the DSS every first Monday of the month, for three months, commencing from September 1.
The court declined an application for all the applicants to be transferred to a correctional centre, pending the perfection of their bail conditions.
