By Camillus Eboh
ABUJA (Reuters) – Lawyers for a Nigerian security agency that said its case files were stolen by armed robbers won an adjournment on Wednesday of a lawsuit filed against it by associates of a Yoruba separatist leader.
Twelve associates of Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, sued the Department of State Services (DSS) in an Abuja federal high court for alleged breaches of their constitutional rights.
DSS detained the men in a raid on Adeyemo’s compound in the southwestern city of Ibadan on July 1. The men are seeking 100 million naira in exemplary damages, claiming DSS detained them beyond 48 hours without charging them in court and displayed them before media when they had not been convicted by any court.
But DSS counsel Idowu Awo told the judge that a gang of thieves had boarded a vehicle carrying a colleague and taken the case files, necessitating an adjournment, which the judge granted.
Earlier this month, DSS filed a five-count terrorism charge against two other Adeyemo aides. Adeyemo himself is detained in neighbouring Benin, and Nigerian authorities are seeking his return to the country. DSS previously said it had found a stockpile of weapons during the July 1 raid.
(Reporting By Camillus Eboh, writing by Libby George; editing by Grant McCool)
