The Bayelsa State High Court, situated in Yenagoa, has scheduled May 20 as the date for delivering judgment in a case brought by a youth activist, Comrade Collins Opumie, against the Department of State Security (DSS) and the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) concerning his unlawful arrest and detention for over two years.
Presiding Judge, Justice Ebiyon Duke Charlie, instructed all parties involved in the suit numbered YHC/324/2022 to present their final addresses and argue their positions based on legal grounds.
Counsel to the first defendant, Sonia Okiri Esq, and the second defendant, E. O. George Esq, contended in their final addresses that the claims made by the Claimant, Comrade Collins Opumie, should be dismissed, and the relief sought should be rejected.
In her submission, Counsel to the DSS, E.O. George Esq, based her final address on whether the court had jurisdiction and whether the Claimant had sufficient cause to seek relief. She urged the court to dismiss the claimant’s suit for lack of merit, asserting that the claimant had not proven his case beyond reasonable doubt.
Counsel to the Claimant, Ebipreye K.V. Sese Esq, argued that the claimant had successfully discharged the evidential burden placed on him by the Evidence Act, 2011 (as amended 2023), emphasizing the principle that the burden of proof rests on the party making the assertion.
Barr. Sese further contended that despite the DSS’s denial of detaining the Claimant, evidence presented to the Court established that the claimant was indeed detained by the DSS for two years in its Abuja headquarters without bail or arraignment, instigated by the NAOC.
Comrade Collins Opumie, hailing from Opuama Community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the State, and a participant in the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), filed the suit in 2023 against his unlawful arrest and detention, seeking N9 billion in damages. He also requested the court to declare his detention as false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.
Among his prayers to the Court, Opumie sought damages for the false imprisonment, an injunction against further harassment or attempts to arrest and detain him, particularly at the behest of NAOC. He accused the DSS in Yenagoa of abducting him in a Gestapo-style operation, subjecting him to physical and mental torture, and transporting him to Abuja without his family’s knowledge or access to medical care.
