Civil servant slams N500m suit against DSS for unlawful detention

A staff of the Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Stephen Ejembi Ola, has dragged the Department of State State Services (DSS) before an Abuja High Court over his alleged unlawful arrest and detention by the service.

The applicant (Mr Ola), through his counsel, Francis Ameh, Ochai Jacob Otokpa and G. E. Ejekela, named the DSS and its Director-General, Lawal Daura, as 1st and 2ndrespondents, respectively.

In an affidavit in support of a motion on notice, the applicant’s wife, Mrs Elizabeth Ola, said her husband was arrested on April 27, 2018 by the operatives of the respondents over an allegation of issuance of a “wrong employment letter” to someone, an issue she said had previously been investigated by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and found the applicant not culpable and consequently set him free.

According to the twelve-paragraph affidavit, “all the efforts made by the applicant’s lawyer and family members to see him proved abortive as the respondents are not willing to release the applicant to neither his family nor his lawyer or allowed to be seen while in the custody of the DSS.

In a motion on notice brought pursuant to Section 46 (1) and (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, order 2 rule 1 and order 4, rules 3 & 4 of the Fundamental Rights’ Enforcement Procedure Rules 2009 and articles 6 and 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the applicant is praying the court for a “declaration that his arrest and continuous detention in solitary confinement without any access whatsoever to his mobile phones, clean water or good food and denial of access to a legal practitioner of his choice from 27th April 2018 till this moment without any court order is unconstitutional and an infringement of his fundamental human rights.

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In suit No: CV/1796/18 and filed on May 15, 2018, the applicant is urging the court to order the DSS and its boss, to release him from their custody, arguing that his, “continuous detention is a violation of his fundamental human rights as enshrined in the constitution.

Furthermore, he is praying for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents, their agents or privies from keeping him in detention and arresting him.

The applicant further prayed the court for, “An order directing the respondent to pay the sum of N500 million, jointly/severally to the applicant as aggravated and exemplary damages for the unwarranted continuous detention as well as the humiliation, molestation, embarrassment, degradation and inconveniences to which the applicant is still subjected to by the respondents.”

Meanwhile, the suit is yet to be assigned to a Judge for hearing.