The Department of State Services has released four men arrested over alleged membership of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra and approved N20m compensation for them.\n<\/p>\n
The agency said each of the men would receive N5m after investigations cleared them of the allegations.\n<\/p>\n
The four men are Emele Uduma Ibe, Berefgagha Appah, Ondokeyilemi Aggry and Oyeinmokebebeton Aggry.\n<\/p>\n
A source in the service who spoke on conditionof anonymity said, they were arrested in May 2022 in Sampou and Akeddei communities in Kolokuma\/Opokuma and Sagbama Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State.<\/p>\n
The source said investigations established that the suspects had been deceived into believing they would receive a monthly payment of N100,000 under the Federal Government\u2019s Amnesty Programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Agency established that they had been misled into believing that they would each receive a monthly payment of N100,000 under the Federal Government\u2019s Amnesty Programme, not knowing that they were being lured by a group of IPOB members who are now facing trial,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n
The suspects\u2019 lawyer, Deji Adeyanju of Deji Adeyanju & Partners, commended the service for its efforts towards safeguarding national security and respecting human rights.<\/p>\n
He also praised the Director-General of the DSS, Oluwatosin Adeola Ajayi, for what he described as his genuine commitment to upholding human rights.\n<\/p>\n
Adeyanju said the level of hygiene and professionalism within the service was the best he had witnessed in more than 20 years of interacting with DSS personnel. <\/p>\n
He reiterated his earlier position that President Bola Tinubu made the right choice in appointing Ajayi as the DSS Director-General.\n<\/p>\n
Speaking on behalf of the released men, Ibe described the day as the happiest of his life, saying the experience had taught him a valuable lesson he would share with others.\n<\/p>\n
He also expressed gratitude to the DSS leadership and prayed for continued blessings for the agency\u2019s Director-General and management.\n<\/p>\n
Ajayi, upon assuming office in 2024, ordered a review of more than 300 inherited terrorism-related cases.\n<\/p>\n
The exercise had reduced the number of suspects held in the agency\u2019s facility to about 100 following investigations, while more than N1bn had been paid in compensation.<\/p>\n
There are also previous compensation payments, including N20m to a Jos-based businessman who was mistakenly shot by its operatives in Plateau State, and N10m each to Chineze Ozoadibe and Sunday Ifedi after investigations cleared them of wrongdoing.\n<\/p>\n
Ajayi had, in a recent maiden media interview, acknowledged that the DSS, like other human institutions, could make mistakes but stressed the need to provide remedies where people suffered injuries.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere we admit our mistakes, we offer compensation, and seek ways to improve operations in tandem with the rule of law,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
The Department of State Services has released four men arrested over alleged membership of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra and approved N20m compensation for them. The agency said each… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}