The presiding judge, Justice Duke Charlie warned the counsel for the DSS, George Obiora Esq, and counsel for Agip, Barr. Sonia to stop attempts to delay the time of the court and adopt all pre-trial addresses and application processes for the trial.
Astate High Court sitting in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital on Friday cautioned the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) against attempts to delay a hearing in the suit filed by an Ijaw youth activist, Comrade Collins Trueman Opumie over his arrest and detention in an underground detention facility in Abuja for 730 days.
The presiding judge, Justice Duke Charlie warned the counsel for the DSS, George Obiora Esq, and counsel for Agip, Barr. Sonia to stop attempts to delay the time of the court and adopt all pre-trial addresses and application processes for the trial.
At the last hearing on Friday, Justice Charlie had all parties to the suit adopt their preliminary applications to regularise their processes at the pre-trial conference.
The matter is slated for a definite hearing for the claimant to open his case on the adjourned date – November 1.
The claimant’s counsel, Barr. Ebipreye Sese brought an application before the court to regularise the claimant’s reply attached with the claimant’s further witness statement on oath to the 1st & 2nd defendants’ statement of defence.
The DSS also applied to regularise their consequential amendment and the police filed their defence.
The counsel for the DSS, George Obiora Esq, also told the court that they might not be able to produce their witness because he was attached to a politician involved in the governorship election slated for November 11.
The counsel for Agip, Ms. Sonia Esq told the court that they might also fail to appear on adjourned dates due to the busy nature of their diary and pleaded that the court should adjourn till December to afford them time to prepare adequately.
But Justice Charlie warned against attempts to delay the court and adjourned till November 1.
The plaintiff, Opumie is expected to present witnesses at the resumed trial.
Opumie had in the suit numbered YHC/324/2022 demanded the sum of N9 billion in damages against his illegal arrest and detention in an underground detention facility in Abuja for 730 days as allegedly ordered by officials of Agip Oil.
Sese, counsel for the plaintiff, stated that the case against the DSS, Agip and the police is for false Imprisonment for two 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 pleading with 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 were malicious.
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 the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the 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 tortured him, tied and threw him into the boot of a vehicle and took him to Abuja like a common criminal without the knowledge of his family and access to medical care.
