Nigeria’s secret police, the State Security Services, SSS, also known as DSS, has freed Ifeanyi Ubah, the managing director of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, after keeping him in detention for more than weeks.
According to Ikechukwu Onyia, an aide to the oil mogul, Dr. Ubah was released “unconditionally” on Monday night [June 19, 2017].
His arrest was widely condemned by human rights activist and politicians. A leading human rights organisation, Intersociety called for the DSS to charge him to court or free him immediately.
The DSS announced the arrest of the Capital Oil boss alleging that he diverted petroleum products worth N11 billion from the state-owned oil firm, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and as such committed “economic sabotage”.
During the suit filed against the businessman’s unconstitutional arrest, the DSS told the court that Mr. Ubah had committed a capital offense which attracted the death penalty.
Conflicting Court Orders
Two federal high courts had made contradictory orders on the detention of Ubah.
A federal high court in Lagos ordered the DSS to release Ubah.
Mohammed Idris, the presiding judge, ordered the security agency to release him “unconditionally within 48 hours”.
Shortly after, a federal high court in Abuja, in another ruling, gave the agency a go-ahead to detain him for another 14 days.
Yusuf Halilu, the presiding judge of the Abuja court, extended Ubah’s detention order following an ex-parte application filed by the DSS.
