Mr. Festus Keyamo, a counsel to the Leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo, has raised the alarm over the state of health of his client who is presently being detained at the State Security Service�s office in Abuja.
Keyamo told journalists in Abuja on Thursday that Dokubo had embarked on hunger strike a week ago after he was moved from the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Area 10 Garki Abuja where he was being remanded on court order.
Keyamo said that the SSS had tricked Dokubo into believing that President Olusegun Obasanjo wanted to talk to him.
He said, �They showed him a letter written and signed by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
�He believed them and followed them only for them to drive him to the SSS�s detention office.�
He said that SSS operatives called Dokubo�s wife to arrange for his doctor to come when it dawned on them that he (Dokubo) was in a critical condition.
He said that a doctor, Karibo Sotonye, was brought from Port Harcourt to treat him.
�On sighting him, the doctor insisted that he must eat. When they could not get the food he wanted for him, he was forced to eat apu. As you know, Dokubo is diabetic and a diabetic does not eat apu,� Keyamo added.
According to him, Dokubo�s health has deteriorated and he is in urgent need of medical attention.
�As I am talking to you now, there is a stalemate. Dokubo has refused to take the drugs procured for him by the SSS and the SSS would not allow him to take the drugs procured by the doctor hired by his family,� Keyamo said.
Keyamo said that the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had agreed to hear Dokubo�s application asking the SSS to let him go or charge him to court.
In the application, Dokubo is challenging his transfer from the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Area 10, Garki, Abuja to the SSS custody.
In the said application, which named the SSS as the Respondent, Dokubo averred thus: �The Respondents alleged that the Applicant (Dokubo) committed a fresh offence which they have refused to disclose to the Applicant or anybody at all and the Respondents are not willing to charge him to court for this alleged fresh offence.�
Dokubo asked the court to declare that his re-arrest by SSS from the police custody where he was kept by order of the court for a fresh offence yet to be disclosed was unconstitutional, illegal, null and void as it violated his fundamental rights as guaranteed under Sections 34, 35 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution.
He also wanted the court to declare that his detention by the SSS was unconstitutional, illegal, null and void as it violated his Fundamental Rights as guaranteed under Sections 34, 35 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution.
He asked the court to make a mandatory order compelling the security agency to charge him to court if it has established any offence against him.
Failure to charge him to court, he asked the court for a perpetual injunction restraining the agency from continuing to detain him �without a formal charge�.
The application raised questions about Dokubo�s state of health, which it claimed has been undermined by the denial of access to his physician, lawyers and family members since SSS whisked him away from police custody on August 30th.