The firm wants Service to release
suspected gunrunners or risk legal action.
The Lagos-based law firm of Bamidele Aturu
& Co has written the State Security
Service, SSS, requesting access to
Mustapha Fawaz, a proprietor of Amigo
Supermarket and Wonderland Amusement Park,
Abuja and two other Lebanese currently
being detained in connection with alleged
gun running and terrorist activities.
In the letter dated June 3, and addressed
to the Director General of SSS, Ekpeyong
Ita, the firm also demanded that they
should be charged to court if they have
committed any offence since the Nigerian
constitution forbids preventive detention
without trial beyond 24 hours.
It warned that if its demands are not
granted on or before Wednesday it would be
forced to take legal action against the
Service.
The letter signed by Bamidele Aturu, the
senior partner of the law firm was also
sent to the Chairman of the National Human
Rights Commission, NHRC.
Messrs Fawaz, Abdalah Tahimi and Talal
Rouda were arrested on different days in
Kano over allegation of gunrunning, the
law firm said.
“We are solicitors to Messrs. Mustapha
Fawaz, Abdalah Tahini and Talal Rouda
(hereinafter referred to as ‘our clients’)
on whose behalf and instructions we write
this letter,” the firm said.
“We have been duly informed that on or
about the 16th day of May 2013 in Abuja at
about 4am Mr. Mustapha Fawaz, a Nigerian
of Lebanese descent, a businessman and the
proprietor of Amigo Supermarket and the
Wonderland Amusement Park both in Abuja,
was arrested by operatives of the State
Security Service (hereinafter referred to
as ‘the Service’).
The lawyers claim is a bit different from
that of the JTF which said Fauzi Fawaz, a
co-owner of Amigo and Wonderland is on the
run. It is not clear if Fauzi Fawaz,
mentioned by the JTF, and Mustapha Fawaz,
mentioned by the counsel are same or
related.
“Further information at our disposal
indicate that Abdalah Tahini and Talal
Rouda both also Lebanese citizens were
arrested by the agents of the Service in
Kano respectively on the 17th of May 2013
and on or about the 28th day of May 2013.
These persons have since the various dates
of arrest been in detention at the
facilities of the Service,” the lawyers
said.
“It has also been brought to our notice
that our clients were on the 29th of May,
2013 paraded before the press at which
occasion they were alleged to have been
involved in dealing in arms in violation
of the laws of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria.
“Since then and given the fragile security
situation in the country the press have
naturally feasted on this allegation and
published various leads, reports,
conjectures and theories linking these
persons generally with terrorism.”
“Indeed and apparently as a follow-up
action, we have been reliably informed
that security operatives shut down Amigo
Supermarket on the 31st of May, 2013 and
arrested scores of persons who were either
staff or customers of the Supermarket.
“Since their arrest we have also been told
they have been held incommunicado and been
denied access to members of their
families, lawyers and doctors. Perhaps,
more worrisomely, no charge has been
preferred against any of our clients in
any court of law for any known offence.”
The firm asked the SSS to respect the
fundamental rights of its clients which it
said had been abridge by the actions of
the Service in the first instance,
stressing that under Nigerian law,
suspects are presumed innocent until
proven otherwise by a court of competent
jurisdiction.
“Consequently, it is clear to us that our
clients are entitled to be treated with
all the dignities guaranteed by the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria including but not limited to
reasonable access to their lawyers, family
members and their doctors,” it said.
“Second, the law is inflexibly clear that
a person arrested in an area having a
court of competent jurisdiction within a
radius of forty kilometres such as Kano
and Abuja cannot be detained beyond 24
hours without being charged with an
offence.
“A cursory reading of section 35 of the
Constitution and a plethora of judicial
authorities, particularly those of the
Supreme Court, puts this beyond any
peradventure.
“In the circumstances, it is our
instruction to demand, and we hereby so
do, that you cause our clients to be
released forthwith or that you prefer
charges against them before a court of
competent jurisdiction.“Furthermore, we also demand that you
grant us (and other lawyers that they may
choose), members of their families and
other relevant professionals such as
medical practitioners access to them as
soon as possible, howbeit not later than
forty-eight hours after receiving this
correspondence in accordance with their
undoubted rights under both Nigerian and
international law.”
The law firm stressed that the power or
duty of the SSS and other security
agencies to combat terrorism and allied
crimes is not under challenge or in
question, adding it has no doubt that all
person of good conscience ought to do
everything lawfully justifiable and
necessary to assist the law enforcement
and security agencies to ensure that the
country is not safe haven for terrorism.
While pledging its unalloyed cooperation
to the relevant institutions of the State
in the anti-terrorism campaign, it said,
“Nevertheless, we cannot but emphasize
that the war has to be prosecuted in
accordance with the dictates of the rule
of law and all known and time-honoured
principles of legality.
“There can be no room for xenophobic
zealotry or guilt by association if the
war is not to flounder and be
unnecessarily compromised.
“The motive for the campaign must be
clear, unambiguous and unmistakable,
namely, to make our country and indeed the
world safe for all who operate within the
bounds of the law,” it said.
The firm threatened to sue the SSS if its
demand is not granted on or before
Wednesday.
It said, “Take notice that if our demands
are not acceded to on or before Wednesday,
the 5th of June, 2013 we shall be
compelled to take all lawful and necessary
steps to ensure that the rights of our
clients are protected.
“Specifically, we shall be compelled to
approach a court of competent jurisdiction
to seek redress. It is our avowed
conviction that every agency of the State
must act within and under the law at all
times, regardless of the temptations, nay,
provocation. Our firm is committed to
seeing to that with unflinching commitment
and vehemence.”
“We have no doubt that you will accede to
this very friendly request urgently.”
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