Unlawful detention: Boko Haram’s ex-spokesman sues DSS, AGF

A former spokesman of Boko Haram, Ali Sanda Konduga, has sued the Director-General, State Security Services (SSS) and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federation over the allegation of unlawful detention.

Konduga, who was convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment by a Chief Magistrate Court in Abuja for criminal intimidation in 2011, alleged that he was kept in detention for an extra three years before he was released in 2016.

In an application for the enforcement of his fundamental rights filed before an FCT High Court in Maitama, Konduga said he was kept in the custody of the DSS instead of the conventional prison because the government wanted him to serve as a key witness to prove a terrorism charge against Senator Ali Ndume before the Federal High Court in Abuja.

He said as at the time he was released, he was never called to testify in the matter or any other matter.

He added that he was taken to the SSS’s office in Maiduguri on September 8, 2016, and was released on September 9, 2016, to his parents.

Konduga added that officers of SSS offered N700,000 to his family when he was released, adding that they were told that the money was meant for his medical treatment.

He said the gesture by SSS showed that they knew he was entitled to compensation for the “illegal and unlawful detention”, but that they refused to pay him any compensation except the N700,000 “which they referred to as medical expenses for my treatment”.

He said following his release in 2016, he sustained head injury when some individuals attacked him as a result of which the police from GRA Police Station, Maiduguri took him into protective custody and later referred him to the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Maiduguri.

Aside from demanding for an “unreserved public apology in three National Newspapers”, Konduga also want the court to direct the respondents to “jointly and severally pay” him “the sum of N500,000 as aggravated damages and compensation for the illegal, unconstitutional and unlawful detention”.

When the matter came up yesterday, Konduga’s lawyer, Mohammed Tola informed the court that the respondents, who did not make an appearance before the court, were served with the processes on March 21 and have failed to file any process in response.

He, therefore, urged the court to allow him to move his application as unchallenged.

However, the trial judge, Justice Samira Umar Bature, said the respondents would be given one more adjournment.

She, therefore, adjourned the matter to April 11 for hearing and ordered that hearing notices should be served on the respondents.