Babatunde Gbadamosi, a staunch critic of the Buhari administration has finally been released from the custody of the Department of State Security after spending weeks with them since his arrest in February.
The DSS obviously like its foreign counterparts, CIA, FBI et al (we, know. Our use of the word “counterpart” is very loose) like to believe their work is more successful when then do every single thing covertly. Even when covertly means breaking down homes of judges in the middle of the night, and waking a whole nation up in anger in the process. The DSS, we have said before, has consistently acted like a relic of the Nigerian military era.
What’s worse is that they rarely cover up their tracks enough for us to be blinded by their almost tyrannical approach to providing security for the country. From the judges’ arrest to the botched midnight operation on Apostle Suleiman and now Mr Gbadamosi’s arrest, it just looks like the DSS is being directed against a certain group of people.
All we have had to work within these arrests is that the DSS carried out a sting operation in order to avoid some perceived harm; in Apostle Suleiman‘s case (which is similar to the pending Audu Maikori episode in some respects) it was the fact that they wanted to investigate his inciteful speech against Fulani herdsmen. In Mr Gbadamosi’s case, no reason was given for his arrest and the family seemed not to know as at the beginning of the week when they got on TV and social media to ask Nigerians to bombard the DSS with calls for his release. His wife, Sade Gbadamosi remains certain the arrest was executed because her husband had often been outspoken against the government – an act that is often just as legal as it can be annoying.
“They came yesterday. No warrant. So I did not let them into the estate. I told them he will come today instead. So we went. Immediate arrest without charges and he was then bundled to Abuja,” Mrs Gbadamosi told Premium Times on Wednesday, February 22nd after Mr Gbadamosi’s detention and consequent transfer to Abuja when he showed up at the secret service offices in Lagos.
Babatunde Gbadamosi has, in addition to the outcry of his wife and son, sued the DSS over his detention which reeks of nothing but illegal infringement of fundamental human rights. It is instructive to add that while he was under arrest, Gbadamosi was denied access to his family and lawyers by the DSS.
After his release today, Mr Gbadamosi said he was “freed without preconditions. They just allowed me to go without filing charges.” He has also promised to brief Nigerians on the details of his arrest once he’s talked to his lawyers and we sure can’t wait all he has to say because the DSS is not the one we look to to provide some explanation for their actions even though they are in the best position to.
We already said here that the DSS is in need of an urgent reform because it keeps acting like a relic from our ugly military past and Mr Gbadamosi’s tale may just be all the proof we need.
