Supermarket, Abuja, Mustapha Fawaz and three Lebanese-Abdalah Tahini, Talal
Rouda and Khosai Nouridine- arrested over the Hezbolla arms bunker uncovered in
Bompai, Kano state have filed a suit before a Federal High Court sitting in
Abuja.
They are demanding for N50 billion as
compensation from the State Security Service, the Director General of SSS,
Ekpeyong Ita and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of
Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), for their unlawful arrest and detention without
trial.
They have also asked the court to stop the
respondents from extraditing them except by a procedure permitted by law.
In the application for the enforcement of their
fundamental rights filed by their counsel, Bamidele Aturu, the applicants asked
the court to declare their arrest and continued detention without trial by the
SSS on various dates as “illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional, null, void and of
no effect whatsoever.”
They also prayed the court for an order
directing their release and an order of perpetual injunction restraining the
respondents whether by themselves, agents, servants, officers, and or proxies
or whomsoever, howsoever from arresting or detaining or continuing to detain
them except by a procedure permitted by law.
The motion was brought pursuant to Sections 35
and 36 of the 1999 Constitution, Articles 6 and 7 of the African Charter on
Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap. A9, Laws of
the Federation, 2004; and Order II Rules 1, 2 and 3 of the Fundamental Rights
(Enforcement Procedure) Rules 2009.
A few days after the arrest of the suspects in
Kano, the SSS sealed Amigo Supermarket and Wonderland Amusement Park.
But the Applicants have asked the court to
declare that the action “was arbitrary and a wanton violation of the right of
Fawaz to own property and participate in the minor sector of the economy as
guaranteed respectively by Sections 44 and 16(1) of the 1999 Constitution and
African Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights.”
They, therefore, sought for an order directing
the respondents and their agents and servants to unseal the Amigo Supermarket
and Wonderland Amusement Park forthwith.
The applicants also demanded for a public
apology by the respondents in three newspapers widely circulating in Nigeria for the violation of their rights.
