A Federal High Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, has ordered the State Security Service to immediately release a member of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, representing Efon Constituency, Afolabi Akanni, from its custody in Abuja.
The court further ordered that alternatively, the SSS should produce the lawmaker in the court in Ado-Ekiti next week Wednesday, March 16.
Mr. Akanni was whisked away on Friday, March 4, along with three of his colleagues, by men of the SSS, who stormed the Ekiti State House of Assembly complex and he had since been held incommunicado at the SSS headquarters in Abuja.
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 SSS did not meet all the provisions of the 1999 Constitution as amended.
The judge who also restrained the SSS from further arresting and detaining Mr. Akanni ruled that warrant to produce lawmaker in court should be served on the SSS.
The judge said the court heard the application urgently because 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 SSS detention, the appellant also sought an order of injunction restraining the SSS and its representatives from further arresting and detaining him.
The hearing of the substantive application was adjourned till March 21.
Reacting to the ruling, one of the appellant’s counsel, Bunmi Olugbade, described it as “rule of law in action.”
He called for useful information in respect of other members whose whereabouts is unknown.
