Ifeanyi Ubah, the managing director of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, has dragged the Department of State Service (DSS) to court over his arrest and detention by the Nigerian secret police.
The Punch reports that Ubah’s lawyer Ifeoma Esom presented an ex parte application to Justice Mohammed Idris on Tuesday, May 9 and urged the judge to order the DSS to release Ubah.
She said this is to prevent the security agency from forcing him to accept “whatever conditions they impose on him in exchange for his freedom.”

After hearing the application, Justice Idris ordered the DSS to bring Ubah before him on May 12 with proof of why the businessman should not be released unconditionally.

An affidavit filed by Secretary of Capital Oil and Gas Limited George Oranuba to support the ex parte application said the DSS arrested Ubah on account of allegations levelled against him by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria.
Oranuba noted that the issue was already in the court but that did not stop the DSS and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the DSS still invited Ubah for questioning.
He said Ubah had earlier been detained from March 24 to April 14, 2017 by the DSS over what the secret police called an act of “economic sabotage” involving an alleged diversion of petroleum products worth about N11bn.

Oranuba said the agreement leading to the keeping of the petroleum product with Capital Oil, allowed “conversion and diversion of IT products by operators as long as the operator is prepared to re-deliver the products within seven days of demand by the owner of the product or to pay a penalty for non-re-delivery.”
He added: “The agreement expressly states that any penalty due for non-re-delivery is to be treated as a debt and I verily believe that law enforcement agencies are not allowed to operate as debt collectors.”

NAIJA NEWSPAPERS had earlier reported that Ubah described his arrest by the DSS as a complete attempt to blackmail him. The oil magnate said the claim by the DSS that he was involved in theft of petrol kept by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in his tank farm in Lagos was a wrong accusation. The secret police on Friday May 5 picked up Ubah over his connection with the missing petroleum product, which was valued at over N11bn.

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