Nearly a week after a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, ordered the Nigerian Army to release unconditionally, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Security matters to the Enugu State Governor, Tochukwu Okeke, the military authorities have yet to obey.
Mr Okeke’s lawyer, Chinedum Agwaramgbo, had filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit for the release of his client imprisoned by the 82 Division, Nigerian Army, Enugu.
The Nigerian Army, the Chief of Army Staff, Farouk Yahaya, and the General Officer Commanding ( GOC) 82 Mechanised Division Enugu, Taoreek Lagbaja, are the 1st and the 3rd respondents in the suit.
The court had on July 29, 2021, ordered the Army to produce Mr Okeke and show cause why the detainee should not be released on bail.
The court had on July 29, 2021, ordered the Army to produce Mr Okeke and show cause why the detainee should not be released on bail.
However, the respondents ignored the court’s order as they neither filed any response nor put up a legal representation, necessitating the judge, Stephen Pam, to make an interlocutory order for the unconditional release of Mr Okeke.
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“It is hereby ordered as follows: That the 1st to 3rd respondents is ordered to unconditionally release the applicant Mr Tochukwu Cornelius Okeke from the cell of the 1st to the 3rd respondents,” Mr Pam said in a ruling on an ex-parte application filed by the applicant’s counsel on August 10, 2021.
In a certified true copy of the order, seen by our correspondent, the judge adjourned the suit marked, FHC/PH/FHR/203/2021, till August 17, 2021, for hearing.
Mr Okeke has been detained without charge since July 5 making Sunday his 41st day of his incarceration.
Backstory
According to the supporting affidavit attached to the motion, Mr Okeke was arrested by officers of the respondents for allegedly belonging to the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its Eastern Security Network(ESN).
Anih Nkem, a family lawyer, who deposed to the affidavit, stated that he made frantic but futile efforts to secure the release of Mr Okeke.
Mr Nkem told the court that the last time he set his eyes on him was on July 22, 2021 and he was looking “disheveled, disoriented, emanciated and sickly.”
He noted that the detainee was having difficulty recognising his loved ones, while complaining of lack of good food, water, adding that the military authorities had refused him access to his personal physician.
According to the court document seen by our correspondent, Mr Okeke, who had been in the military’s custody since July 5, has been reportedly denied access to his phone, despite his failing health.
Mr Okeke, who was whisked away from the Akanu Ibiam International Airport by military men on his way home, in his testimony before the court, informed that the military interrogated him and tortured him despite not having any evidence against him, even after conducting numerous searches in his apartment.
The court documents further noted that the applicant, despite referral from the Military hospital, has been refused a CT brain scan.
Our correspondent put several calls to the mobile phones of the spokesperson of the Nigerian Army, Onyema Nwachukwu, and the GOC of the 18 Mechanised Division of the Nigerian Army in Enugu, Mr Lagbaja, to ascertain the rationale for keeping Mr Okeke in custody.
But the phone calls were unanswered at the time of filing this report Sunday evening.
