The Department of State Services (DSS) has been given permission to keep terrorist negotiator Tukur Mamu in custody for an additional 60 days by a Federal High Court in Abuja.
In a judgement on Tuesday, Justice Nkeonye Maha stated that the 69-day period was necessary for the DSS to complete its investigation into Mamu in relation to certain alleged criminal activity.
Ahmed Magaji, the DSS’s attorney, argued the ex-parte motion that led to the decision.
The DSS is mandated by the judgement to update the court on the status of its inquiry once the 60-day period has passed.
The security agency had pleaded with the court in a motion dated September 12 and bearing the file number FHC/ABJ/CS/1617/2022 to let it to continue detaining Mamu so that it could finish its investigation into him.
The militants who kidnapped the passengers from the train traveling between Abuja and Kaduna in March were being negotiated with by Mamu.
Mamu and a few members of his family were taken into custody on September 6 in Cairo, the Egyptian capital.
Mamu was stopped at the Cairo International Airport before being returned to Nigeria while en route to Saudi Arabia for the smaller Hajj.
