Operatives of the State Security Services (SSS) yesterday, re-arrested four alleged kidnappers of oil workers on the premises of the Abuja division of the Federal High Court shortly after Justice Anwuri Chikere sitting in the division admitted them to bail.
The accused persons are Livingstone Kiani, Eric Abadiba, Uroh Kiani and Loveday Lucky.
The re-arrest was not easy though as one of the alleged kidnappers vehemently resisted it.
It took a joint efforts of four SSS security men, who forcefully dragged the difficult accused person into a waiting customized SSS white Peugeot-Boxer model car.
The resistance by one of the accused persons yesterday provoked a mild drama on premises of the court.
The other accused persons who were savouring joy of victory out of the court, on noticing the treatment meted on their mate, immediately rushed back into the court room for safety.
The three who did not resist arrest were led from the court room to the waiting car which immediately zoomed off amidst tight security.
They were arraigned before the court in August on a five-count charge of abducting a top official of Con-Oil, Mr John Oni.
The accused allegedly held Oni hostage for over four months and demanded N10 million ransom from his employer.
In a ruling delivered yesterday, Justice Anwuri Chikere earlier granted bail to the accused persons on the ground that there were no compelling evidence against them.
Chikere held that even though the offence allegedly committed by the accused persons was serious, it was not enough for the court to deny them bail.
She granted them bail in the sum of N5 million each and a surety in like sum.
Each surety, she ordered, must have a landed property of which the Certificate of Occupancy should be deposited in the court.
The accused persons were to deposit their three years tax clearance certificate, their international passport and three passport photographs each to the custody of the court.
Counsel to the accused, Prof. Olisa Chukwurah, who seemed to have a premonition of a re-arrest of his clients urged the court to direct that the accused be taken back to prison before they meet their bail conditions.
�There is the possibility that the accused persons, even after the bail order, will be arrested by the SSS,�� he said.
Speaking with news men shortly after the accused were whisked away, Chukwurah condemn in strong terms, the action of the SSS, particularly, the brutal treatment meted on one of them.
Meanwhile, the SSS has said that the accused were re-arrested because of a new charge filed against them before the court. In the fresh 3-count charge yet to be preferred against them, the accused persons, with others at- large, were alleged to have attacked, with fire-arms, took control of Con-Oil and Gas Ltd. in Bayelsa for five days and disrupted the company�s operations.
They were alleged to have intimidated and coerced the oil company to pay ransome money of N6 million before they left their oil rig.