Bello Bodejo, president of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, has filed a suit against the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and director-general of the Department of States Services (DSS) over his arrest and continuous detention without arraignment.
In an ex parte motion marked M/16976/2024, filed on Thursday by his team of lawyers led by Reuben Atabo, the Miyetti Allah president is asking a high court in Abuja to order his release from the DSS facility pending the hearing and determination of the substantive application.
Bodejo is also seeking an order granting him leave to apply for the order of “habeas corpus subjiciendum” against the respondents.
Habeas corpus subjiciendum is a Latin phrase and a legal term used to compel a person or authority holding someone in custody to bring the detainee before a court and justify the legality of the detention.
On December 9, Bodejo’s family said he was arrested and detained by officers of the 117 battalion of the Nigerian Army in Maliya, Nasarawa state.
His lawyer said the army kept him in the custody of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Abuja up to Wednesday, December 18 without being charged in any court of competent jurisdiction.
Atabo said Bodejo had been transferred from the custody of the DIA to the DSS facility in Abuja on Thursday.
He said the respondents are not desirous of diligently prosecuting his client “before a competent court of law and thus, their actions are unconstitutional and shorn of any legal basis whatsoever”.
Hauwa, the first wife of Bodejo, in an affidavit supporting the motion ex-parte, narrated events that led to her husband’s arrest.
She recounted a December 8 clash at Shuwari village in Nasarawa state, between some Fulani herders and Dan Gwari, a retired naval officer, whose farmland was entered by a herd of cattle.
Hauwa said Gwari allegedly fired gunshots at the herders and killed four cows, adding that he sustained machete cuts during a struggle to disarm him.
She said the Fulani elders took Gwari to a hospital and covered his bills after which he was discharged.
Hauwa claimed that the retired naval officer later mobilised soldiers to arrest some Fulani boys, seized 400 cows, and detained Bodejo, who was away at the time of the incident.
She said Bodejo on December 9 was allegedly detained and subjected to inhuman treatment at the Keffi barracks at Gwari’s prompting.
“My husband (the applicant) called me on the phone on December 11, to inform me that the Nigerian Army was taking him to an underground cell of the Defence Intelligence Agency and would blindfold him thereafter,” she said.
Hauwa said she later found out that her husband had been moved on Wednesday night to the custody of DSS, where he is currently being detained.
Bodejo’s wife said since her husband’s arrest and detention, he had been denied access to his medications.
Hauwa, who said that the applicant would be greatly prejudiced if the application is refused, noted that it would be in the interest of justice to grant the motion.
No date has been given for the hearing of the motion.
