Chairman of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Ifeanyi Ubah, has begun a lawsuit against the Department of State Services, DSS, over what he described as his unlawful detention by the agency.

An ex parte application was filed by Ubah’s lawyer, Ifeoma Esom at the Federal High Court, Lagos on Tuesday.

In the application, Esom claimed that her client had been in detention since May 6, urging the court to order his release.

Secretary of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, George Oranuba, in an affidavit to support the application, said that his boss was arrested on account of allegations against him by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON.

Oranuba, pointed out that the allegations against Ubah was already before a court of competent jurisdiction, but despite the subsisting suit, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the DSS still invited and detained him between March 24 to April 14, 2017.

Recall that the DSS had on Sunday, May 7, released a statement saying it arrested Ubah for acts of “economic sabotage”, as he allegedly diverted petroleum products worth N11 billion belonging to the NNPC, which was stored at his petrol depot in Lagos.

But Oranuba noted that the agreement between the NNPC and Capital Oil allowed for “conversion and diversion of IT products by operators as long as the operator is prepared to re-deliver the products within seven days of demand by the owner of the product or to pay a penalty fornon-re-delivery.”

“The agreement expressly states that any penalty due for non-re-delivery is to be treated as a debt and I verily believe that law enforcement agencies are not allowed to operate as debt collectors,” the Capital Oil secretary stated.

Oranuba also claimed that the NNPC is indebted to Capital Oil and Gas Limited in excess of N13 billion yet the company did not call law enforcement agencies to collect the debt, despite the length of time the debt has lasted.