The publisher of Sahara reporters and the Presidential candidate of the AAC, Omoyele Sowore would be detained by the Department of State Security (DSS) for a period of 45 days, this permission was granted by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday, The Punch has reliably gathered.
The ruling which was given by Justice Taiwo Taiwo, ruling on an ex parte application by the State Security Service, opined that the detention order is renewable after the expiration of first 45 days which elapses on the 21st day of September.
Ruling on ex parte application, a one-sided request by the DSS 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.