By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa
Ijaw youth activist, Comrade Collins Trueman Opumie, who was allegedly illegally arrested and detained in an underground detention facility in Abuja for 730 days by the Department of State Security (DSS), on Wednesday tendered eleven exihibits and presented two witnesses at the Bayelsa State High Court sitting in Yenagoa.
Justice Ebiyon Duke Charlie, on Wednesday, presided at the hearing and plaintiff call of witnesses in the suit, numbered YHC/324/2022, and filed by Comrade Collins Trueman Opumie, with demands for the sum of N9 billion in damages against his alleged illegal arrest and detention.
The claimant’s counsel, Barr. Ebipreye Sese, also called Comrade Collins Trueman Opumie and a medical practitioner from the Federal Medical Center, Dr. Okoya Cyrax Imomoton, who gave a medical report on the extent of injuries sustained during the alleged imprisonment for two years, under the custody of the DSS (2nd set of defendants) in their detention facilities, without bail or arraignment in a court of law, at the alleged instance of the Agip (1st set of defendants), over “false and malicious complaints/reports.”
Counsels to the 1st and 2nd defendants, P.O. George and Innocent Ekpen respectively, raised the issue of jurisdiction of the court and extension of time before the calling of witnesses.
Justice Duke Charlie considered the plea for time by the defence counsels and adjourned the cross examination of claimant’s witness till 24th of November, 2023.
The judge however ordered that the court will hear the substantive suit alongside the Notice of preliminary objection
Barr. Sese, counsel to the plaintiff, stated that the case against the DSS, Agip and the Police is for false imprisonment for 2 years at the instance of Agip’s “false and malicious complaints/ reports against the claimant and malicious prosecution without a probable cause which ended in favour of the claimant.”
He is also praying the court to declare that his arrest, torture and subsequent detention without proper food and medical attention and access to family members for two years for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.
In his eight prayers before the court, Opumie sought the order of the court against the defendants jointly and severally “for damages suffered as a result of the false imprisonment for two (2) years under the custody of the DSS (2nd set of defendants) in their prison facilities without bail or arraignment in a court of law at the instance of the Agip (1st set of defendants) false and malicious complaints/reports against him.
“An injunction restraining the 2nd and 3rd set of defendants from further harassing or attempts to arrest and detain the claimant at the instance of the 1st set of defendants.”
Opumie, who is an indigene of Opuama Community in Southern Ijaw Local Government area of Bayelsa State and among Niger Delta youths that embraced the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), in his statement of claims, accused the DSS in Yenagoa of allegedly abducting him at the instance of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in a gestapo style, physically and mentally torturing him, tying and throwing him into the boot of a vehicle and taking to Abuja like a common criminal without the knowledge of his family and access to medical care.
