The Federal High Court in Abuja has granted the Department of State Services (DSS) permission to detain the convener of RevolutionNow, Omoyele Sowore, for 45 days.
Justice Taiwo Taiwo gave the ruling on Thursday, adding that the detention order would be renewable after the expiration of first 45 days on September 21.
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A lawyer representing the secret police service, G.O. Abadua, had on Tuesday appeared before the court to move the agency’s ex-parte application to detain Sowore for 90 days.
Mr Sowore, 48, was arrested last Saturday by DSS operatives ahead of Monday’s #RevolutionNow protest, which he had spearheaded.
He was the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress in the February 2019 general election.
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DSS anchored its application on the provision of section 27(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention) Amendment Act.
Without counter-argument by Sowore’s legal team, Justice Taiwo said he had to grant the application “only to the extent” of allowing the security agency to keep the respondent in custody for only 45 days for the applicant to conclude its investigation.
The judge said that although the hearing of the application was one-sided as provided by 27(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention) Amendment Act, the use of the word, “may”, in the provision “is directory” and not “discretionary”.
