For the second time in about one month on Thursday, the Department of State Services failed to obey a court order directing the release of pro-democracy activist and Publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore.
The agency, which was on Thursday morning served with the latest ruling of a Federal High Court, Abuja, by the court’s bailiff and lawyers to Sowore, acknowledged receipt of the document but refused to obey the directive.
As at the time of filing this report, there was no indication that the agency was ready to honour the court order and release Sowore and Olawale Bakare widely known as Mandate, who had been detained in their custody since August 3 and 5, 2019 respectively.
In a precursor to Thursday’s refusal to honour the order issued by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, the DSS turned back the court’s bailiff and Sowore’s lawyers on Wednesday at around 4:30pm, claiming that the agency could not attend to the document because they had closed since 3:30pm.
The team was asked to return to the facility at 10:00am on Thursday to serve the court order.
However, several hours since acknowledging receipt of the fresh order to release the two men, the DSS is refusing to do so despite the defendants perfecting their bail conditions.
Court order submitted to the DSS
Recall that the DSS also flouted an order issued by Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the same court directing it to release Sowore after he met an initial bail condition set.
In his ruling on September 30, Justice Taiwo had asked... Read more..https://remaloaded..com/2019/11/dss-confirms-receipt-of-court-order-to.html