PDP chieftain sues DSS over illegal detention

A chieftain of the Peoples’ Democratic Party in Lagos State,  Mr.  Babatunde Gbadamosi, has approached the Federal High Court, Lagos, to challenge his arrest and detention by the Department of State Security Service.

According Ebun Olu Adegboruwa, counsel representing Mr. Gbadamosi, his client was arrested by the DSS in Lagos on February 21, 2017, and was immediately whisked to Abuja, where he has been in custody ever since, with no access to his family, doctors and lawyers.

Joined as respondents in the suit are the Department of State Security, the Director, Department of State Security and the Attorney-General of the Federation.

The defendant is seeking the following reliefs: that his arrest on the 21st February 2017 by the 1st and 2nd respondents, their officers, servants, agents, privies, howsoever at Directorate of State Security Service (DSS) office, Shaginsha, Magodo, Lagos State, constitutes a flagrant violation of the his fundamental rights, also that his detention by the 1st and 2nd respondents since the 22nd day of February, 2017 amounts to a flagrant violation of the Fundamental Rights, also that  the arrest and continuous detention of the Applicant by the respondents, their servants, privies, agents or howsoever amounts to contravention of the Applicant’s Fundamental Human Rights.

He is also asking for an injunction restraining the respondents, whether by themselves, their servants, agents, officers or otherwise howsoever, from further violating the fundamental rights of the Applicant through unlawful arrest and detention.

He is also asking for an order restraining the Respondents, whether by themselves, their servants, agents, officers or otherwise howsoever from carrying out any acts or omission which is likely to contravene the fundamental rights of the Applicant guaranteed under the Constitution and African Charter.