A Federal High Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, on Friday ordered the Department of State Services, DSS, to immediately release a member of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, representing Efon Constituency, Afolabi Akanni, from its custody in Abuja.
Alternatively, the court ordered the DSS to produce the detained lawmaker before it next Wednesday, March 16.
It would be recalled that armed operatives of the DSS penultimate Friday stormed the Ekiti State House of Assembly complex and picked up Mr. Akanni along with three of his colleagues, and they had since been held incommunicado at the services’ headquarters in Abuja.
Members of the Ekiti Assembly had on Thursday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the DSS to immediately release their colleagues in detention even as they claimed $1 million was dangled before them to commence impeachment proceedings against the state governor, Ayodele Fayose.
Justice Taiwo Taiwo, while delivering the ruling on Friday on suit number FHC/AD/CS/8/16 filed on behalf of Mr. Akanni by his counsel, Obafemi Adewale, said the DSS did not meet all the provisions of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
The judge, who also restrained the DSS from further arresting and detaining Mr. Akanni, ruled that warrant to produce the lawmaker in court should be served on the DSS.
Justifying the decision to give accelerated hearing to the application, the judge held that the life and liberty of a citizen was at stake.
The motion exparte, deposed to by a member of the State House of Assembly, representing Oye Constituency II, Adetunji Akinyele, bordered on the infringement of Mr. Akanni’s fundamental human rights.
Apart from seeking the immediate release of Hon Akanni from DSS detention, the appellant also sought an order of injunction restraining the DSS and its representatives from further arresting and detaining him.
The hearing of the substantive application was adjourned till March 21.