Five #BuhariMustGo protesters who were arrested and manhandled during a Sunday service of the Dunamis International Gospel Centre (Glory Dome), Abuja, by the church officials and the Department of State Services have dragged the church and the DSS to court over their illegal, arrest, detention and violation of their human rights.
SaharaReporters obtained the court papers filed by the activists, bearing their names; Ben Manasseh, Emmanuel Larry, Samuel Gabriel, Anene Victor Udoka, and Henry Nwodo as the applicants.
The activists who went to the church to worship were arrested for wearing #BuhariMustGo T-shirts on Sunday have been subjected to degrading treatments by the service and not allowed access to their lawyers and families.
The respondents are: the State Security Service (also known as the DSS), the Director-General of the SSS, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and the Pastor-in-charge of the Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Pastor Paul Enenche.
The suit is being heard at the Federal High Court of Nigeria; Abuja judicial division.
In the court paper with suit No: FHC/ABJ/C5/638/2021 obtained by SaharaReporters on Thursday night, which was filed at the Federal High Court, the activists accused the DSS of violating their rights by refusing to release them.
They are seeking enforcement of their fundamental rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of expression, freedom from discrimination and freedom of personal liberty.
They accused the secret police of violating their rights guaranteed under sections 38, 39, 42, of the Nigerian Constitution and Articles 1, 2, 6, 8, & 9 of the African Chartered on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (CAP A9) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
SaharaReporters had on Monday reported that the DSS initially denied the whereabouts of the arrested activists, and it was gathered that 24 hours after their arrest, their friends, family members and lawyers could not reach them.
The church through Pastor Enenche also denied that its officials arrested the activists and insisted that DSS operatives carried out the arrest. Enenche disclosed this when the rights activists , Omoyele Sowore and Deji Adeyanju visited him in his office on Monday, 5th July 2021.
Among those arrested was a visually impaired person (Samuel Gabriel Iwatannaye), who is also a saxophonist.
He was said to have been manhandled and brutalised by the church officials before being handed over to the DSS operatives.
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