An Abuja Federal High Court has granted Department of State Services (DSS) permission to hold Tukur Mamu, a former terrorists’ negotiator, for a further 60 days.
The clearance was granted on Tuesday, September 13, 2022 by Justice Nkeonye Maha in response to an ex-parte application made by Ahmed Magaji, the DSS’s attorney.
On his way to Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj, Mamu, one of the top negotiators for the release of those injured in the Kaduna State train attack, was detained at Cairo International Airport, Egypt.
The DSS urged the court to grant its reliefs in a motion with the file number FHC/ABJ/CS/1617/2022 and a date of September 12 so that it could wrap up its investigation into Mamu, who was in charge of negotiating the release of the train passengers from Abuja to Kaduna who had been abducted in March.
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This came when Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a well-known Islamic cleric with roots in Kaduna and Mamu’s assistant, criticised the detention of Mamu.
At a religious gathering on Friday in Kaduna, Gumi requested that the security agency charge Mamu to court rather than keeping him in detention if it had any evidence against him.
However, the DSS responded that it would not be sidetracked by some distorted media narratives and asked to be left alone so that it could focus on the ongoing investigations, the results of which it claimed were still “mindboggling.”
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Mamu was detained by INTERPOL on September 6 at Cairo International Airport in Egypt as he attempted to board an aircraft to Saudi Arabia.
A day later, the security agency said that upon his return to the nation, he had been arrested.
It stated that the action was in response to a request made by the military, law enforcement, and intelligence community to their foreign partners to bring Mamu back to the country in order to provide crucial information regarding ongoing investigations into certain security issues in particular parts of the country.