Court orders release of four Igboho supporters — after 53 days in DSS custody

Obiora Egwatu, judge of a federal high court in Abuja, has signed the order releasing some supporters of Sunday Adeyemo, a youth leader, popularly known as Sunday Igboho.

Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) had, on July 1, raided Igboho’s residence in Oyo and arrested 12 of his supporters.

The arrested persons were subsequently moved to the federal capital territory (FCT) where they have been detained for about 53 days.

Egwatu had, on August 4, granted bail to the 12 supporters after Pelumi Olajengbesi, their lawyer, filed an application asking the court to “inquire into the circumstances constituting grounds of their arrest and detention since July 2, 2021, and where it deems fit admit applicants on bail”.

Although there were unconfirmed reports that the judge had disappeared in the attempt to evade signing the order of release, Emmanuel Gakko, chief registrar of the court, in a statement, clarified that Egwatu travelled outside the country on a national assignment.

However, upon his return, the judge signed the order of release for four of the youth leader’s supporters — they are Amudat Babatunde, Abideen Shittu, Jamiu Oyetunji, and Bamidele Sunday.

Olajengbesi, who confirmed the development to TheCable, said the eight other supporters could not be released because three sureties withdrew.

“Yes, the judge signed release order for the four. For the remaining eight, we had a short setback as three of the sureties withdrew in the process,” he said.

The eight detainees are Abdullateef Onaolapo, Tajudeen Irinloye, Dikeola Ademola, Ayobami Donald, Uthman Adelabu, Olakunle Oluwapelumi, Raji Kazeem, and Taiwo Tajudeen.

Meanwhile, the DSS has filed an application before the court, asking that the bail granted to some of the Igboho supporters be cancelled, pending completion of their investigation.