By Emem Idio

JUSTICE A. O. Awogboro of a Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, has berated the authorities of Joint Task Force, JTF, code-named Operation Delta Safe, for flouting its order directing the release of two detainees in its custody, two weeks after the order was granted.

File Photo: JTF officers

The court had ordered the release of two women, one Mrs Yeibra Esinghan and one Mrs Yedi Ketu, pending the determination of the suit.

In two separate suits on fundamental rights enforcement by the detainees’ counsel, Mr. Victor Gbafe, in the suit between the JTF Commander, Rear Admiral A. Suleiman, and the applicants Mrs Yeibra Esinghan and Mrs Yedi Ketu, they had prayed the court for an order for their immediate release from JTF’s detention and a restraining order against their arrest and detention pending the determination of the suit.

At the resumed hearing, Justice Awogboro was infuriated when Gbafe informed the court that the applicants were yet to be released after the court order had been served on them.

However, counsel to JTF, Mr. P. C. Ahunwah, informed the court that the detainees had been transferred to the custody of Defence Intelligence Agency, DIA.

Justice Awogboro, who adjourned hearing to February 5, asked the JTF counsel to furnish the court with the details of the transfer of the detainees to DIA.