The troubles of ex
militant, Selki Torughedi, a.k.a Young shall grow, who has been
languishing in DSS prison for almost three months may not be over after all.
One month after a federal
high court in Abuja discharged and acquitted the Bayelsa –born ex militant, a
detachment of combatant soldiers under the aegis of Operation Crocodile Smile invaded his country home residence in
Azuzuama, Bayelsa state, in the early hours of Friday, destroyed valuables, molested
occupants and desecrated family shrine.
According to his wife,
Alaere, the soldiers who were led by the Special Assistant to the Bayelsa state
governor on Marine security, Africa Ukparasia, stormed their home in the thick
of the night, ruffled up everybody living in the house, broke doors, pull down
windows and ceilings, turned the furniture upside down and left with virtually
nothing.
Continuing, Alaere said
the siege lasted about two hours even as the soldiers who had all the trappings
of commandos threatened to come back for another round of assault.
It would be recalled that
Selki Torughedi, (Young shall grow) a
former Special Assistant to Governor Seriaki Dickson on Maritime security before
he moved to Timipre Silver’s camp shortly before the April 2016 gubernatorial
election, was arrested in Calabar by the DSS in June 2016 for spurious
allegation of pipeline vandalisation, plan to kill government functionaries and
being a major sponsor of the Niger Delta avengers.
He was locked up in the
DSS cell for over two months without access to his family or legal counsel.
When he was eventually brought to court, the DSS slammed him with a 10 count
charge bothering on plan to kill some government functionaries, bombing of
pipelines and being a major sponsor of the Niger Delta Avengers among others.
A federal high court in
Abuja however ordered the DSS to release Mr. Selky Torughedi without any
further delay.
Delivering judgment in an
application filed by counsel to Selki Torughedi, Emeka Uchegbulam, seeking for
the enforcement of his fundamental human rights, Honorable Justice Nnamdi Dimgba
absolved Selki of any culpability, saying the DSS erred in law to have detained
him for such a length of time without any single tangible evidence.
Justice Dimgba averred
that the explanations given by the DSS were
wide and very speculative, noting
that the justification offered for the
continuous incarceration of the suspect
were bereft of any shred of evidence. He said the court could only act on the
basis of credible evidence.
According to him, the DSS
has no single proof to offer to back their claims .Such proof he
said could have been in the form of a call log from communication companies
showing discussions which the suspect has had with militant members plotting
the nefarious activities which the DSS alleged him to be involved in.
It could have been in the
form of statements offered by other arrested members pointing out the suspect
as their member. The DSS, he said did
not even deem it fit to exhibit any confessional statement made by the
applicant for the court to evaluate and neither did they explain in what form Selki’s
sponsorship of the militant group had taken, whether it was financial, material
or just moral sponsorship.
In the absence of such
concrete material, Justice Dimgba ruled that” any incarceration that was not
backed by order of a competent court is illegal, unconstitutional and must be
shot down by the court,” Against this background, the Judge ruled that Selki
should go home a free man.
However, over one
month after the judgment was given and
the DSS’ refusal to obey court order or contest the judgment by filing an
appeal, the soldiers carried out its own assault apparently in search of
“missing” evidence.
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