Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja has directed the Director General of the Department of State Service (DSS) and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to protect the African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate, Hon Leke Abejide, from any arrest or detention by Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello.
In a separate order, the DSS, Police, and Bello were forbidden from inviting, arresting, detaining, or endangering the gubernatorial candidate’s life or property while a lawsuit against them was being heard and decided.
The judge in Abuja, Nigeria, granted the restraining orders on Wednesday in response to an ex-parte motion that was brought by the governorship candidate’s Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Sammie Somiari.
The DSS, Police, and Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps were instructed to protect the politician’s properties in Abuja, Kogi State, and anywhere else in the nation for the duration of the instructions in the enrolment order issued by Justice Mohammed.
The governorship candidate requested enforcement of his fundamental rights to life, dignity of the person, personal liberty, fair hearing, peaceful assembly, and association in the ex-parte motion with the reference number FHC/ABJ/CS/1248/2023.
Additionally, he demanded that other applicable human rights statutes and the provisions 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, and 43 of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantee people’s rights to freedom of movement and nondiscrimination, be upheld.
He bemoaned the fact that ever since he declared himself a contender for governor, Governor Yahaya Bello had allegedly grown anxious and vowed to have him arrested and incarcerated to keep him out of the public eye.
Abejide further asserted that the governor’s ultimate goal is to threaten, intimidate, and harass him in order to force him to withdraw from the November 11, 2023, governorship election and make room for his chosen APC candidate.
Justice Mohammed issued restraining orders against the respondents after hearing the senior attorney’s arguments and considering the supplied materials. These orders state that the applicant cannot be detained or mistreated while his substantive lawsuit is proceeding.
“An Order is hereby made restraining the respondents, their agents, servants and anybody acting through or under them from arresting, inviting, detaining or threatening the applicant’s life and properties pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.
“An Order is hereby made compelling the 2nd – 8th respondents to immediately provide maximum security to the applicant in Abuja FCT, Kogi State and elsewhere in Nigeria pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit”, the judge held.
The judge commanded the applicant to deliver to the respondents all documents related to the lawsuit.
Yahaya Bello, the governor of Kogi State, the Nigeria Police Force, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Commissioner of Police for Kogi State, the DSS, the Director General of the DSS, the Director of the DSS for Kogi State, and the Commandant-General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) are the respondents in the lawsuit.
The judge then set the hearing for the main lawsuit for September 20.
The ADC governorship candidate requested a court declaration that the Kogi governor’s use of armed officers, militias, and thugs to prevent him from voting in the November 11 election violated his rights to life and the dignity of his human person in the substantive lawsuit Ogwu James Onoja, SAN filed on his behalf.
Additionally, he requested that the court rule that Governor Yahaya Bello’s threat to attack, invade, and demolish his homes, businesses, and vehicles in order to assassinate, arrest, and detain him constitutes a breach of his rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, as well as his rights to life, liberty, dignity, and personal liberty.
Abejide requested a court order prohibiting the respondents—whether acting alone, through their agents, or through third parties—from arresting, kidnapping, detaining, or otherwise harassing, intimidating, shooting, or threatening him and his property.
Along with apologizing publicly, the ADC governorship candidate demanded that Governor Yahaya Bello pay him N2 billion for allegedly grossly violating his fundamental human rights.
The plaintiff claimed in a 27-paragraph affidavit that he personally testified to in support of the originating summons that the Kogi State Governor’s operatives had reportedly besieged his Abuja home ever since he started to take the lead in the race for governor of the state.
He asserted that because his objections and protests to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) had been unsuccessful, he had decided to ask the court to protect his life and property.
Platinum Times recalls that the same court had, on July 13, ordered security organizations nationwide to provide the highest level of protection for another Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate for governor in the November election in Kogi State, Murtala Ajaka, in response to comparable complaints of threat to life.