Court orders DSS to produce Ifeanyi Ubah May 12

 Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah

• Rivers CJ frees 49 inmates to mark Rivers at 50
A Federal High Court in Lagos, yesterday ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to bring the detained Chief Executive Officer of Capital Oil and Gas, Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah to court on May 12.

The order followed an ex-parte application filed by his counsel, Mrs. Ifeoma Esom, that her client had been in detention since May 6.

She urged the trial judge, Mohammed Idris to order the DSS to release him to prevent him from being forced to accept unfavourable conditions to gain his freedom.

Supported with an affidavit by the Secretary of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, George Oranuba, the deponent claimed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) arrested Ubah on account of allegations.

Oranuba said the issue had become a subject of litigation, adding that despite the subsisting suit, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the DSS invited Ubah for questioning.

According to him, Ubah had earlier been detained from March 24 to April 14, 2017.

The DSS had claimed that it arrested and detained Ubah for what it termed an act of sabotage, involving an alleged diversion of petroleum products worth about N11bn.

Meanwhile, the Chief Judge of Rivers State, Justice Adamma Iyayi-Lamikanra has freed 49 prison inmates.

She said the gesture was part of the activities to mark the state’s golden jubilee.

The inmates were released yesterday at a special court session at the Port Harcourt Maximum Security Prison.

Among those discharged were inmates who had been on the awaiting trial list with minor offences since 2010, as well as those who were granted bail, but could not meet their bail conditions.

Justice Laminkanra explained that the exercise was in accordance with the Provision of the Criminal Justice Law of Nigeria.

Earlier, the state’s Comptroller of Prison, Dr Loveday Omu, said awaiting trial persons were so many in the prison without a corresponding rate of releases.