The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the remand of three suspects for allegedly assaulting operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) at the Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday.
The judge, Daniel Osiagor, ordered the remand of the suspects – Ibrahim Olanrewaju, Adetu Adekunle and Fatimoh Adetola – after the lawyer representing the SSS, Michael Bajela, pushed for their araignment, but the judge said that he needed to first go through the file.
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The judge then asked the SSS to remand the suspects in custody pending their arraignment scheduled for Wednesday.
The suspects are reportedly workers of the state’s assembly.
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Backstory
Controversy has continued to trail the presence and actions of officials of the SSS at the state assembly’s complex.
Following the removal of Mudashiru Obasa as the Speaker of the state’s assembly, there was palpable fear that he might return to the complex to forcefully regain the speakership seat on on 18 February.
While the lawmakers condemned the presence of the SSS operatives, saying it was meant to prevent them from doing their work, officials of the agency shared an unsigned statement, credited to the agency, saying its operatives were in the building because they were invited by the assembly’s manager to prevent the breakdown of law and order.
The statement said the SSS was invited to maintain law and order, following the suspicions that the ousted Speaker would attempt to foment trouble.
It said the assembly also requested increased security presence and strict access control within and outside the premises, effective from Sunday, 16 February.
However, a video seen by PREMIUM TIMES shows that the lawmakers physically resisted the SSS officials from occupying the assembly complex.
In the video, armed SSS officers forced their way into the assembly chamber through a back entrance despite resistance from the lawmakers.
Six counts
In the case, marked FHC/L/273C/2025 and dated 24 February, filed on Tuesday, the SSS accused the suspects, alongside others said to be at large, of conspiring to assault its officers while they were performing their official duties, “without any reasonable excuse.”
According to the document reviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, the security agency filed a total of six charges against the suspects.
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The prosecution alleged that on 17 February, at the Lagos State House of Assembly, the three defendants did “aid and abet
to commit a felony, to wit: obstructing the officers of State Security Service (SSS) while performing their
official duty without any reasonable cause, you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 27 (1) (b) of the cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc Act,
2015 (as amended), 2024 and punishable under the principal offence under this Act.”
They were also accused of cyberstalking amongst themselves by recording and sending false information to social media and circulating the same to the whole country for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order amongst the people without any justification.
The SSS said that the defendants conspired amongst themselves to commit felony through “willful misdirection of electronic messages to social media for the purpose of embarrassing the State Security Service and its officials…”
Furthermore, they accused Mr Olanrewaju and Adetu of using their mobile devices to “record false information” and circulating the same on social media to embarrass the security agency.
The offences allegedly contravened sections 516 of the Criminal Code Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, as well as sections 27(1)(b), 24(1)(b), 24(c)(i), and 11 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015 (as amended), 2024.
