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Buhari’s Daughter, DSS Disagree over Detention of SIM Card User
The State Security Service (SSS) has told the Federal High Court in Asaba on Friday that it arrested and detained Anthony Okolie, based on a directive from the presidency to investigate him over the use of a SIM card previously used by Hanan, President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter.
Okolie was arrested in July 2019 and eventually detained for 10 weeks without trial despite the provision of the Nigerian law that mandates that a suspect not be detained for more than 48 hours by the police (or government agency) without bail or without charging the individual to court.
After his release, Okolie through his lawyer, Tope Akinyode, sued Hanan, the Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS) and telecoms provider, MTN, over his ‘illegal detention’.
Mr Okolie is seeking an order to “compel the respondents to jointly or severally to pay the applicant the sum of N500 million as general and aggravated damages for the gross and unlawful violation of the applicant’s right to acquire moveable properties, freedom of movement and self dignity.”
Speaking at the hearing of the suit filed by Mr Okolie at the Federal High Court in Asaba on February 12, the president’s daughter, through her lawyer M.E. Sheriff, told the court Hanan would not be responding to the allegations “because there was no need.”
The judge, Nnamdi Dimgba, furiously responded saying: “What do you mean you haven’t seen a reason? Sheriff, how can you not see a reason? Somebody has accused you. Even if it is to say, ‘I didn’t do so’, can’t you respond? You’re saying you did not see a reason. Sheriff, what kind of thing is this?”
On his part, the SSS lawyer, E.E. Daobri, said “he did not receive the necessary documents from the SSS headquarters in Abuja on time, hence, could not file a counter-affidavit.”
Controversy
Following the backlash from the judge, Hanan’s lawyer, Mr Sheriff, in a counter-affidavit filed on February 21, agreed that the MTN SIM card which caused the dispute was once used by her.
She, however, claimed not to be aware that any arrest was made by the SSS in her 20-paragraph affidavit obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.
She said although she was not happy with the complaint from the public that someone else was using her former SIM card, but “I have never complained to the State Security Service or any law enforcement agency in Nigeria or outside the country to make arrest of anyone.”
The SSS’ Claim
In the 35-paragraph affidavit, signed by an SSS official, S.M. Kayode, and obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, the security agency said it received an official letter of instruction from the presidency dated July 5, 2019, upon which it acted.
In the affidavit, the SSS said the presidency’s letter indicated that Mr Okolie was parading himself as a member of the first family to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.
The SSS alleged that their investigation revealed that Mr Okolie attempted to defraud Ahmed Halidu, a member of the president’s family, before the former was arrested. The agency said Mr Okolie wrote a confessional statement admitting to the crime on July 24, 2019.
For 10 weeks at their custody, the SSS said nobody applied for Mr Okolie’s bail until one Ernesh Chukwuedo surfaced and he was released to him.
Also in the affidavit, SSS said it acted in the interest of national security.
Defence
Mr Okolie had earlier told PREMIUM TIMES that Hanan ordered his arrest and she was contacted thrice before he was eventually released.
Mr Akinyode, the lawyer to the accused, said the Nigerian constitution makes no provision of any kind for the “first family” and that the involvement of the presidency in this matter is a “disgraceful deployment of state apparatus for personal gains”.
“The “confessional statement” has no relevance to this suit whatsoever. There was no place he ever misrepresented to anybody that he is Buhari’s daughter. More so, he never received any money from anybody.”
“However, even if someone commits an offence – and there’s none that my client has committed – he must be charged to court within at most 48 hours. In this instance, the victim was detained for 10 weeks, his fundamental rights had been violated. Period.”
“All the things they wrote is just about putting up a useless defence where there’s none. His right has been violated. The SSS has on several occasions admitted that they ran a foul of the law because of national security. Should that be a ground to deprive a citizen of his fundamental human rights?” the lawyer said,
The matter is scheduled to come up March 3 before Justice Nnamdi Dimgba.
Premium Times
The first hostages freed from Gaza under a long-awaited ceasefire agreement are back in Israel. The news sparked jubilant scenes in Tel Aviv where large crowds gathered ahead of their release.
The three freed Israeli hostages – the first of 33 to be released over the next six weeks – are Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They are said to be in good health and are receiving treatment at a medical center in Tel Aviv.
In exchange, 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are set to be released by Israel from Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military withdrew from several locations in southern and northern Gaza after the truce began earlier on Sunday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Displaced Gazans have started returning to their homes, while the aid trucks laden with much-needed supplies have crossed into Gaza. Here’s what we know about how the ceasefire deal will work.
Hamas, despite suffering devastating losses, is framing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as a victory for itself, and a failure for Israel.
One of Hamas’ main goals for taking some 250 people during its brazen October 7, 2023, attack on Israel was to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. As Israel pounded Gaza in response, Hamas vowed not to return the hostages until Israel withdrew its forces from the enclave, permanently ended the war, and allowed for rebuilding.
Source: CNN
The leader of UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said she doesn’t want Britain to be like Nigeria that is plagued by “terrible governments.”
Speaking on Thursday at an event organised by Onward, a British think tank producing research on economic and social issues, Badenoch expressed fears that Britain may become like Nigeria if the system is not reformed.
“And why does this matter so much to me? It’s because I know what it is like to have something and then to lose it,” Badenoch told the audience.
“I don’t want Britain to lose what it has.
“I grew up in a poor country and watched my relatively wealthy family become poorer and poorer, despite working harder and harder as their money disappeared with inflation.
“I came back to the UK aged 16 with my father’s last £100 in the hope of a better life.
“So I have lived with the consequences of terrible governments that destroy lives, and I never, ever want it to happen here.”
Badenoch has been in the news of late after she dissociated herself from Nigeria, saying she has nothing to do with the Islamic northern region.
She also accused the Nigeria Police of robbing citizens instead of protecting them.
She said: “My experience with the Nigeria Police was very negative. Coming to the UK, my experience with the British Police was very positive.
“The police in Nigeria will rob us (laughter). When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well…I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch.”
