Police, DSS scramble for Nyanya bombing suspect prosecution

The Police and the Department of State Service on Friday contested each others’ authority to prosecute the suspected mastermind of the April 14 bomb blast in Nyanya, Abuja, Aminu Ogwuche.

At the Friday’s proceedings before Justice Adeniyi Ademola, DSS’ laywer, Cliff Osagie, urged the police to withdraw the initial charges filed against the accused to enable the DSS to complete its investigation on the matter.

But counsel representing the police, Oloye Torugbene, who is a Deputy Superintendent of Police, insisted that he would not withdraw the charges as he was not instructed by police authorities to do so.

The charges before the court were filed by the police in preparatory to the Federal Government’s application for Ogwuche’s extradition from Sudan, where he allegedly escaped to after the incident.

However, the suspect was detained in the custody of the DSS upon his successful extradition to the country in July.

The matter was scheduled for arraignment before Justice Ademola on Friday, but the police who had filed the charges before the court could not produce Ogwuche and his co-accused in court.

The judge also noted that other necessary documents that should accompany the charges to show investigations had been completed and that the police were ready for trial to begin, were not provided.

Not satisfied with Torugbene’s explanations the judge called on Osagie, who was in court for a different matter, to assist the court with possible information at his disposal.

“I expect them (the police) to have withdrawn the charges to enable us (DSS) to complete our investigation and hand over the case to the Attorney-General of the Federation, who is statutorily empowered to prosecute cases like this,” Torugbene said.

He explained after the accused was extradited from Sudan, the DSS on September 11 obtained an order from Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the same Federal High Court in Abuja to further keep the accused in custody for 90 days “in the first instance.”

In response, Torugbene, who apparently was unaware of the fresh order obtained by the DSS, said he could not withdraw the charges because he had not got the instruction to do so.

Justice Ademola, who expressed surprise about the seeming lack of “collaboration” between the two security agencies, asked them to agree on a date before which the issues should have been sorted out.

The matter was then adjourned till November 10.

Over 100 persons died in the blast, which was said to have been masterminded by the accused before escaping to Sudan.

Ogwuche and others accused along with him was said to have been arrested in Sudan with the assistance of the Interpol.