An affidavit deposed to by Ibrahim Olowopopo, the driver of the national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, before an Osun State high court sitting in Oshogbo, has revealed that Mohammed was arrested during the Osun gubernatorial election for allegedly being in the habit of abusing President Goodluck Jonathan.
In a 14-paragraph affidavit deposed to by Olowopopo, who drove the car that conveyed the applicants from Lagos to Oshogbo, alleged that the event occurred on August 8, 2014, about 9pm, while they were on their way to the Government House to meet with Governor Rauf Aregbesola to honour an appointment.
Lai Mohammed, Salisu Shuaibu, Sunday Dare and Ibrahim Olowopopo (applicants) have jointly instituted a “fundamental rights enforcement” suit before the Osun State High Court, accusing the DSS of political witch-hunting and victimisation.
They have slammed a N500 million suit against the DSS for their alleged arrest and detention by agents of the service during the just concluded governorship election in Osun State.
The applicants also want the court to order the respondents to tender a public apology to them.
Specifically, the applicants alleged in the suit, which is expected to be formally filed by their counsel, M. A. Banire and Associates, on Monday, that one of the reasons they were arrested by the DSS as allegedly claimed by one of the officers who arrested them was because the APC publicity secretary “was in the habit of abusing President Goodluck Jonathan”.
They are also praying the court for a declaration that their arrest and detention by officers of the respondent on August 8 and 9, 2014 was unconstitutional, illegal, null and void and in violation of their fundamental right to personal liberty as guaranteed by section 35 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999. [eap_ad_1] The applicants are further demanding a declaration that their arrest and manhandling by the respondent on the days constituted a violation of their freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment as guaranteed by section 34 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.
Some of the grounds on which the suit is based included: that the arrest, torture and inhuman treatment to which the applicants were subjected to by officers of the respondent are definitely not approved by law as the applicants neither committed nor were they convicted of any offence to warrant such treatment by the respondent.
Also it states that the arrest, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment to which the applicants were subjected by the respondents were based on a frivolous allegation of loitering as later disclosed by the respondent’s spokesperson, Mrs Marilyn Ogar, in an interview on Channels television on Thursday, August 14, 2014, which offence is unknown to law.
The applicants also averred: “Some few metres away from the Government House at Oke-Fia, we observed some officers of the respondent with bold tags on their chests reading ‘DSS’ and some other persons trying to break into the premises of one Senator Bayo Salami who shared the same fence with the Government House.
“I noticed that the said officers of the respondent were shooting the gate of the house of the said Senator Bayo Salami but I was instructed by the first applicant to quickly drive by so as to avoid any trouble with the said officers of the respondent.
“Suddenly, the officers of the respondent whose names were covered jumped on the road and stopped the vehicle I was driving, ordered me to switch on the inner light of the vehicle which I promptly did.
“While they were interrogating me as to our destination and whether we had cash on us, one of the officers identified the first applicant (Lai Mohammed) as the national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress and alleged that the first applicant was in the habit of abusing President Goodluck Jonathan.
“The said officers of the respondent ordered the first applicant to get down from the vehicle and suddenly put the nozzle of a gun to his head, ordered the second and third applicants to also disembark from the vehicle under the cover of a gun and moved them into a waiting Hilux van of the respondent.
