From Godwin Tsa, Abuja

A Federal High Court has ordered the Nigerian Army and the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Farouk Yahaya to produce a Nigerian citizen, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Security matters to the Enugu State Governor, Tochukwu Cornelius Okeke before the court.

Also ordered by the court for same reason is the General Officer Commanding (G.O.C) 82 Mechanized division, Enugu, Maj. Gen. Taoreek Lagbaja.

Justice A. T. Mohammed of the Port Harcourt division of the court made the order upon a motion exparte filed and moved by Chinedum Agwaramgbo on behalf of the applicant.

The respondents are equally ordered to appear and show cause why the applicant should not be granted bail or unconditional release from custody.

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Justice Mohammed has however directed the applicant to serve all the processes relating to the case on the respondents.

According to the supporting affidavit attached to the motion, Okeke was arrested by officers of the respondents for allegedly belonging to the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and it’s Eastern Security Network (ESN).

Mr. Anih Stanley Nkem, who deposed to the affidavit, stated that he made frantic efforts to secure the release of Okeke but was not successful as the officers of the respondents insisted that they were yet to conclude their investigations and would not release him yet.

Nkem told the court that the last time he set his eyes on him was on July 22, 2021 and he was looking disheveled, disoriented, emaciated and sickly.

That presently, the applicant is having difficulty in recognizing persons he knows and is complaining of lack of good food, water and that the respondents have refused him access to his personal physician.