Court grants bail to 4 Boko Haram suspects

A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to release on bail, two teachers and two other persons suspected of belonging to the Boko Haram sect.

The suspects, Umar Ibrahim and Adamu Ojiri from Doma local government area in Nasarawa State; Ali Isa, a businessman in Lafia; and Adamu Haruna, a businessman in Doma, were arrested between February and March, 2014 by a combined team of the DSS and the military.

In her ruling yesterday, Justice Binta Nyako admitted the detainees to bail in the sum of N1 million each and two sureties in like sum.

She also ruled that the sureties must be owners of landed property in Abuja.

Justice Nyako said the bail will last until the DSS, the Director General of the DSS, Mamman Daura and the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai comply with the order releasing them on bail or charge them before a competent court.

The order followed the lapse of an initial 21 days ultimatum by the court after their counsel; Barr Abdul Mohammed in 2016 filed a fundamental rights application challenging their continued detention two years after they were arrested without a formal charge.

The lawyer had claimed that they were held without access to their family, adding that their detention violates section 35 (3) and (4) and section 41 of the 1999 Constitution and Articles 6,7 and 18 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

He had demanded the sum of N100 million in damages against the DSS, the DG DSS, and the COAS for the infringement of their fundamental rights to liberty protected under Chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution.