The Federal High Court in Abuja has granted the Department of State Service (DSS) permission to detain the publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, for 45 days.
The presiding judge, Justice Taiwo Taiwo, gave the ruling on Thursday on an ex parte application filed by the DSS on Tuesday to keep Sowore for 90 days to investigate him over his call for revolution. The court held that the detention order would be renewable after the expiration of first 45 days on September 21.
The DSS anchored its application on the provision of section 27(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention) Amendment Act.
Ruling on ex parte application, a one-sided request by the SSS without counter-argument by Sowore’s legal team, Justice Taiwo, said he had to grant the application, “only to the extent” of allowing the security agency to keep the respondent in custody for only 45 days for the applicant to conclude its investigation.
He said, although the hearing of the application was one-sided as provided by 27(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention) Amendment Act, the use of the word, “may”, in the provision “is directory” and not “discretionary”.
He said he would, therefore, be failing in his duty not to grant the request for a detention order. He also said should the applicant require more time to conclude its investigation after the expiration of the first 45 days, it had the liberty to apply for its renewal.
