BY CHUKWUMA NNAM
Facts have emerged Friday of why the Department of State Services, DSS could not produce in court the detained twelve aides of Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho.
Pelumi Olajengbesi, the counsel to the twelve aides said his clients in the DSS custody are badly brutalised, sick and one of them suffers fracture in her leg.
Olajengbesi who said he was at the DSS headquarters in Abuja on Friday after over four weeks of not being given access to his clients decried the condition of the twelve suspects.
He said the twelve Igboho aides under the DSS custody are being fed with a soup known as “engine oil” which has consequently led to diarrhoea after eating the soup with Fufu or Eba.
The DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya, did not pick the calls put across to him in a bid to confirm the statement of the lawyer of the detained twelve chief Igboho’s aides.
Punch reports that in an update obtained on Friday, Olajengbesi said that he and two other members of the legal team met with four of the 12 detained persons.
He said, “It is important to state that their current situation is a classical definition of wholesome human rights abuse. Their health is, sadly, poor and in a sorry situation.
“They are made to sleep on the bare floor and are badly beaten before medical treatment is accorded them to heal and conceal injuries from the torture.
“Lady K, in particular, seems to have sustained fracture on her left leg and is in serious pains. She has not had a change of clothes and folds herself to sleep in the terrible cell.
READ ALSO: Igboho’s Release: Yoruba leaders working on it — Sanwo-Olu
“A larger per cent of them have high blood pressure issues as confirmed by the SSS clinic. They are fed with a liquid they call ‘engine oil’ as their soup for their food. Their normal routine is to eat and resume the toilet where they purge for long.
“They’re being treated badly and worse than animals, and we did our best in assuring and keeping them upbeat and in high spirits before making our exit.”
Recall that the 12 persons were arrested on July 1, 2021, during a midnight raid on the Ibadan residence of Igboho. The secret Police had said its operatives killed two other associates of Igboho in a “gun duel” during the raid.
The detained persons, through their lawyers, subsequently approached a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to demand their release.
The court had, on Thursday, adjourned the suit till Monday because the DSS failed to produce the detained persons as ordered by the court.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu had ordered that the DSS should grant the lawyers to the detained aides access to their clients.
The counsel to the DSS, I. Awo, however, informed the court that the DSS had no intention of disobeying the court’s order. Awo said some of the names on the court order were different from the names of the persons they had arrested at Igboho’s house.
In his update, Olajengbesi said, “On the issue of the discrepancies in the names, it was confirmed that there was an error from both sides as to the correctness of their name. We, therefore, agreed to adopt same as reflected on the DSS’ processes and we have concluded plans to file a motion for amendment of our processes in order to avoid any unnecessary legal debate that may further prolong the matter.”