The State Security Service (SSS) has finally released five ‘Buhari-Must-Go’ protesters, who were arrested by the secret police last month at the Dunamis International Gospel Centre in Abuja.
The 5 protesters, Ben Manasseh, Anene Udoka, Henry Nwodo, Samuel Larry and Samuel Gabriel, were arrested for wearing T-shirts with ‘Buhari-Must-Go’ inscription to the church on July 4 and detained by the SSS since then.
Their release was confirmed in a statement on Wednesday by their lawyer, Tope Temokun, in Abuja.
Temokun said the detainees were released on Tuesday, about a week after the court ordered the release of the protesters.
The Federal High Court in Abuja had on July 26, ordered the release of the five detainees.
Rather than obeying the order, the SSS arraigned the 5 persons at a chief magistrate’s court in Mpape, Abuja, on July 28, on charges of disturbance of peace.
Temokun, bent on enforcing the order of court releasing his clients, commenced a contempt suit seeking to have the SSS director-general, Yusuf Bichi, warned for his disobedience to the court order.
On Monday, Temokun filed a ‘Notice of Consequences of Order of Court’, also known as Form 48, at the Federal High Court in Abuja on July 30, essentially warning Bichi of a possibility of being jailed if he continued to disobey the court order.
In his statement on Wednesday, the lawyer said the SSS “bowed to the fireworks from the people of Nigeria”.
Speaking of his clients’ arrest, Temokun said the young Nigerians “attended the Dunamis church in Abuja, to seek God’s intervention, according to them, for Nigeria at this difficult time.
“Hardly did it occur to them that the gate to the church could also turn to the gate to prison”.
