Following news reports on Monday, July 20, 2015, that former Chief Security Officer to President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Gordon Obua has died in the custody of the Department of Security Services (DSS), the DSS is yet to make an official statement to deny or confirm the report.
Obua, who was being detained by the DSS in an underground dungeon for undisclosed reasons was being denied access to his lawyers, family, and his doctors on the orders of the new Director General of the DSS, Lawal Daura. The DSS (also called SSS) serves as Nigeria’s secret police.
The Trent broke the story of Obua’s death following confirmation from a source who had been monitoring the situation closely.
Nigerians, on Tuesday, July 21, 2015 are demanding an official statement from the DSS on the true condition of Mr. Obua whose lawyers had raised an alarm over the inhuman conditions in which he was being held at the DSS in solitary confinement. Obua was being held by the DSS since Thursday, July 16, 2015 without charges filed against him.
On July 18, 2015, Onochie Onwuegbuna, the lead partner at Zeran Legal, had issued a press statement on behalf of Obua’s family complaining about the conditions in which his client was being detained and said that his client was being witch-hunted by the Buhari government. He said his client was diabetic and hypertensive and was being denied his drugs as well as food and water by the DSS.
Meanwhile, Nigerians on Tuesday, July 21, 2015 demanded an official statement from the DSS on Obua’s true condition after conflicting reports about his death, being in a coma, and collapse and revival after being allegedly hospitalised have begun to circulate in the media.
Since The Trent broke the story, there has been intense pressure from certain security quarters to recant the story of Obua’s death. Our reporter who is monitoring the situation has been issued with threats of being arrested by the Buhari government, which is seen as cracking down on officials who served in Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
However, an informed security source who spoke with The Trent on the condition of anonymity insists that Obua died, Monday, July 20, 2015 in the underground dungeon at the DSS headquarters where he was being held and that the DSS is trying to craft an appropriate narrative that would deflect responsibility for his untimely death from the agency.
Investigations by The Trent reveals that at the time of filing this report, no one has seen Obua alive. Not even his lawyer, none of his wives, or relatives or his physician have seen him.
Nigerians are insisting that the DSS needs to present a proof of life of Obua to the media. It is also worrisome that 24 hours since news of Obua’s death began to filter into the media, the DSS has kept mum over the report.
