Igboho: DSS Releases Female Blogger, One Other Detained For 114 Days
The PUNCH has learned that two of the 12 allies of Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, have regained their release after 114 days in the custody of the Department of State Services.
Amudat Babatunde (female) and Jamiu Oyetunji are their names.
Pelumi Olajengbesi, the inmates’ lawyer, verified their release to The PUNCH on Friday.
The DSS had detained 12 of Igboho’s pals on July 1, 2021, during a midnight raid on his Soka mansion in Ibadan, Oyo State, and whisked them away to Abuja, where they had been held in jail.
After a considerable delay, the secret police finally freed eight of the twelve inmates on Monday, August 30, 2021, in accordance with a court decision, while keeping the remaining four.
Abideen Shittu, Abdullateef Onaolapo, Ayobami Donald, Olakunle Oluwapelumi, Dikeola Ademola, Bamidele Sunday, Raji Kazeem, and Taiwo Tajudeen were among those released earlier.
On September 3, 2021, two more detainees were released. Tajudeen Arinloye and Uthman Adelabu were released on Thursday, followed by Babatunde (female) and Oyetunji on Friday.
The 12 detainees were granted bail by Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja on August 4, 2021.
They had met their release conditions, which included providing 24 sureties, but the DSS lawyer, Idowu Awo, had challenged Justice Egwuatu’s decision to grant bail to four of them, stating that they were extensively involved in their boss’s suspected guns stockpiling and other illegal activities.
According to the PUNCH, the DSS filed terrorism charges against Oyetunji and Babatunde, a female blogger who did a Facebook Live around 2 a.m. on July 1, 2021, when the DSS raided Igboho’s home in a joint operation with sister agencies.
Known as ‘Lady K ifeoluwa show’ on Facebook, the blogger with over 17,000 followers had turned on her Facebook Live on the midnight of July 1 during the raid of Igboho’s house by the Nigerian security forces.
Seated on a bed in a room in one of the apartments in Igboho’s residence in the Soka area of Ibadan, a fear-torn Lady K had made a 12-minute video, alerting the world that DSS operatives had “attacked” the residence of her boss.
In the video which is still on her Facebook page as of the time of filing this report, an alarmed Lady K had said, “Please share this video, soldiers have attacked Chief Sunday Igboho’s house. We are under attack. Nigerian soldiers have attacked us at Chief Sunday Igboho’s house.
“You can hear the gunshots. This is about 2am. They have been shooting for over 10 minutes now. I had to confirm it before coming on this Live. I heard their gunshots from my sleep. I can’t come out now. They told me not to come out but alert the world through this Facebook Live.”
Igboho’s spokesman, Olayomi Koiki, had also alleged that the DSS removed the closed-circuit television in his principal’s house after the raid, an allegation the DSS has not denied.
Lady K was said to be a member of the media team of the Yoruba Nation arrowhead before the DSS arrested her alongside 11 others during the raid.
The secret police also said its operatives killed two other associates of the activist during a “gun duel”.
In a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CR/305/2021, which was dated August 31, 2021, the DSS through one of its lawyers, S.M. Bello, had filed five terrorism charges against Oyetunji and Babatunde.
The DSS alleged that Oyetunji and Lady K were in possession of firearms for terrorism-related activities while it specifically alleged that Lady K promoted terrorist acts through her Facebook account.
“That you Amudat Habibat Babatunde (f) adult of Okeara of Ibadan, Oyo State did use your Facebook account as a platform to promote terrorist activities contrary to Section 18 (1 &2) of the Cybercrimes Prohibition Prevention Act 2015,” count five on the charge sheet read.
The court has not fixed any date for the hearing.
But reacting in an earlier chat with The PUNCH, Olajengbesi had described the charges as “baseless, vexatious, shameful and without limbs.”
Igboho, wanted by the DSS for alleged arms trafficking, has been in detention in Cotonou, Benin Republic, since July 19, 2021 when he was arrested at an airport as he tried to board a Germany-bound flight.
The Nigerian government has reportedly pushed for the extradition of the activist to Abuja from the French-speaking West African country but the efforts have not been fruitful in the last three months since his incarceration.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), had in his Independence Day broadcast on October 1, 2021, alleged that Igboho, and Nnamdi Kanu, the embattled leader of South-East based secessionist group, the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, were sponsored by a top member of the National Assembly as well as other personalities in the country.
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