A suit seeking to declare illegal the continued detention without trial of 101 suspected members of Boko Haram, who were arrested in 2009 in the aftermath of the riot that followed the killing of Muhammad Yusuf, founder of Boko Haram, will be heard by Justice Liman of the Federal High Court in Lagos, on March 8.

The respondents are Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF); Mohammed Adamu, the Inspector-General of Police; Babagana Monguno, the National Security Adviser; Haliru Nababa, the Controller General of the Nigeria Correctional Service.

The Prisoners’ Right Advocacy Initiative (PRAI), through its counsel Kelani Isa Kehinde, filed the fundamental rights enforcement suit on behalf of the 101 applicants – two of whom are from the Republic of Niger.

The applicants said they were indiscriminately arrested in different parts of the north, such as Borno, Kano and Bauchi, 11 years ago.

An affidavit showed that 43 of the applicants were arrested in Borno, Adamawa and Bauchi states, 17 were arrested in Bauchi and 42 were arrested in Kano. Many were arrested while travelling, walking on the road, in the mosque, at motor parks, in their homes and in their different places of work.

In March 2011, many of the suspects were relocated to Lagos before they perfected their bail. Three of the suspects died in custody; 73 were held at the Kirikiri Maximum Custodial Centre and 28 detained at the Kirikiri Medium Custodial Centre. They have been detained without trial and denied access to their families, friends and lawyers.

Two of the applicants were relocated to the Kikikiri Maximum Custodial Centre despite a valid court order that they should be released and transported to their locations in the Republic of Niger.

This amounts to violation of their freedom of movement and personal liberty, their lawyer noted.

Many federal government committees visited all the applicants in custody and promised their release but nothing happened afterwards.

“The actions of the respondents amount to a gross violation of the applicants’ fundamental right to personal liberty, respect for the dignity of their person and a violation/infringement of the applicants right to fair hearing/access to court within a reasonable time by a court of law,” counsel to the applicants stated in an affidavit.

The applicants asked the court to order their “unconditional release” from detention and to issue a permanent injunction restraining the respondents from “interfering with the applicants’ fundamental human rights in any manner”.

Other demands include ordering the first, second and third respondents to pay N303,000,000 million to the applicants and to apologise in three newspapers for the “brazen breach and disregard of their fundamental rights”.