The Department of the State Security Services (DSS), has refused to honour the release warrants of 12 associates of Yoruba nation agitator Sunday Igboho issued by a federal high court in Abuja.
Their warrants of release was signed on Monday, August 23 by Justice Obiora Egwuatu who three weeks ago granted them bails . The detainees have fulfilled all the bail conditions granted them by the court including the provision of two sureties who owned landed property in Abuja.
Director General of the DSS Yusuf Bichi was said to have blocked lawyers from giving effect to the release warrants since Monday when it was served on him
Apparently angered by the development, lawyer to the 12 detained associates Mr Pelumi Olajengbesi has threatened to commence contempt proceedings against the Director General of the State Security Services (SSS), Yusuf Magaji Bichi for the agency’s alleged failure to comply with an order of court for the release of his clients.
Speaking in Abuja on Friday, Olajengbesi said his clients had, last week, met the conditions attached to the bail granted them by Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, following which the judge signed their release warrant on Monday.
Olajengbesi said despite being served with the released warrant issued by the court, the DSS has failed to release the detainees, who were arrested during the July 1 raid on Igboho’s house in Ibadan by a combined team of men of the DSS and the Nigerian military, and they have been in custody since then.
The lawyer said: “The refusal of the DSS to honour a clear order of court, though habitual, is not only worrisome and unacceptable, but is an affront on the authority of the court and our entire judicial system
“Such blatant disregard for, and contemptuous, spiteful and insolent disrespect of an Order of court if allowed to fester would undermine the very integrity of the court and breed even newer levels of rascality by state agents.
“It would also amount to surrendering the freedom and rights of all twelve detainees to the whims and caprices of an agency that has gone rogue and thrives in wilful disobedience of court orders.