The 12 detained aides of Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, may be on the way to perfecting their bail and regaining freedom from the custody of the Department of State Services where they have been held for about 50 days.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that each of the 12 detainees had finally got two persons to stand as their sureties.
Our correspondent learnt that the bail office of the Federal High Court in Abuja said it needed to write letters to the offices of the 24 sureties to get more confirmation.
DSS operatives had arrested the 12 persons on July 1, 2021 during a raid on Igboho’s Ibadan residence around 1am.
DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya, had said the secret police killed two other associates of the activist in a “gun duel.”
The 12 detained persons had approached the court through their lawyers led by Pelumi Olajengbesi to seek their release in line with their fundamental human rights.
The presiding judge, Justice Obiora Egwuatu, had on August 4, 2021 admitted the 12 applicants to bail. The 12 persons have spent about 50 days in the custody of the secret police in Abuja.
However, their bail perfection suffered a setback last week as the Federal High Court in Abuja demanded 24 sureties, a development that was in contrast to four sureties earlier demanded by the court.
The aides are Abdullateef Onaolapo, Tajudeen Irinloye, Dikeola Ademola, Ayobami Donald, Uthman Adelabu, Olakunle Oluwapelumi, Raji Kazeem, and Taiwo Tajudeen; while the four aides are Amudat Babatunde, Abideen Shittu, Jamiu Oyetunji, and Bamidele Sunday.
Speaking with Saturday PUNCH on Friday, Olajengbesi said the requirement for 24 sureties had been met as required by the court.
“We have the 24 sureties already as required by the court, but the challenge is the bail office insisted that it needs to write letters to all the offices of the sureties to confirm the sureties,” he said.
The lawyer urged the court not to foot-drag the process of the confirming the genuineness of the sureties so the detained persons could regain freedom.
Meanwhile, the DSS has filed a remand application at the Federal High Court in Abuja, asking the court to nullify the bail earlier granted to four of the 12 detained associates of Igboho.
In the motion no FHC/ABJ/CS/647/2021, filed on August 9, 2021 by the DSS lawyer, Idowu Awo, the secret police urged Justice Egwuatu to annul the bail granted to Babatunde, Shittu, Oyetunji, and Sunday.
The DSS lawyer urged the court to remand the four detainees “pending their arraignment during court vacation.”
Awo said investigations revealed that the four detainees were heavily involved in the alleged offence of arms stockpiling and other criminal activities of their boss, Sunday Igboho.
The DSS alleged that it had recovered seven AK-47 rifles, three pump-action rifles, one stun gun, 221 live rounds of 5.56mm ammunition, 1,295 live rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, one jack knife and a walkie-talkie during their arrest on July 1, 2021.
But detainees’ lawyer, Olajengbesi, described the remand application by the DSS as “laughable” and vowed that it would fail.
“It is laughable and logic turned upside down that after over a month in the DSS custody, the DSS still needs more days to punish them. I can assure you this will fail,” he said.
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