Further to our story on the continued detention of Mr. Gordon Obua by Nigeria’s Secret Police, PR Nigeria, a firm that circulates press releases on behalf of Nigeria’s security agencies, reached out to The Trent on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 21, 2014 to inform us that the Department of Security Services (DSS) was preparing a statement on the matter and would make it available to us.
We have just received a press statement from PR Nigeria on Obua and it was accompanied by the pictures below.
This is the statement in its entirety, unedited.
The Chief Security Officer (CSO) to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr. Gordon Obua this afternoon told Nigerians and the world at large that he is hale and hearty and is being treated with dignity by the management and staff of Department of State Security Services (DSS).
Obua, a serving officer of the DSS addressed the media inside the conference room of the service headquarters in Abuja.
There had been social media rumours that Obua, who had been detained since last week died after being tortured.
But the man who looked composed and well kept sad: ” I thanked Nigerians and members of my family who have expressed very serious concern about my well being in the last six days.
“I want to use this medium to tell Nigerians and members of my family that I am hale and hearty.
“As a serving officer of DSS and having completed my duty tour with the last President, the service felt that I should give a briefing of my stewardship.
“Nigerians should should be assumed that DSS is a responsible organisation and I am sure that nothing adverse will happen to me once it is ascertained that I did nothing wrong”, Obua stated.
When pressmen attempted to question him, Obua clarified “I am a serving staff of DSS and I have limitations regarding speaking with the press. I thank the Director General of DSS for the way that I have been treated so far.”
While these pictures (below) were attached to the press statement from PR Nigeria, there was no video of the said press briefing.
As at the time of filing this report, there is still no information from Obua’s lawyer or family on this matter.
