Paganengigha Anagha, younger brother of ex-Bayelsa governor Timipre Sylva, has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to force the Department of State Services to free him after 171 days behind bars. Anagha, held over claims linked to his sibling's alleged coup plot, wants Justice Hauwa Joseph Yilwa to order either his release or immediate arraignment if any offence exists.
Through senior advocate Michael Jonathan Numan, he told the court that the 60-day detention warrant issued to the DSS on 17 November 2025 lapsed without renewal and no charge sheet has appeared. The suit, filed under reference FHC/ABJ/CD/2405/2025, invokes Sections 35, 36 and 46 of the 1999 Constitution, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 and the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act. Counsel argues that holding him under the terrorism statute after the probe ended breaches his constitutional rights. Anagha adds that he has been blocked from seeing either his lawyer or relatives since arrest, even though the agency never returned to court for an extension.
Justice Yilwa has yet to fix a hearing date.
Detaining a citizen for 171 days without charge is not a mere procedural slip; it is a deliberate choice that hollows out the constitutional safeguard against indefinite executive lock-up. Anagha's case exposes the ease with which security agencies can recycle an expired 60-day warrant into half a year of silence, betting that the bench will blink first.
Globally, this pattern mirrors the drift in democracies where terror laws become holding pens for anyone tagged "national security risk," from Cairo to Brasília. Once the state slaps that label, the normal timetable of justice collapses and the burden quietly shifts to the detainee to prove he deserves freedom.
For Nigeria, the message is bleak: even proximity to a political family offers no shield when the security playbook favours disappearance over due process. If a former governor's brother can vanish for six months without arraignment, thousands of unnamed Nigerians held in similar limbo stand no realistic chance of swift judicial review.
Watch whether Justice Yilwa demands the DSS produce either evidence or the detainee within a fixed timeframe; a timid adjournment will signal that the agency can bank on further delay.
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