The Department of State Security, DSS have started the mass release of detainees in its cells across the country. A move many see as a good foot forward for the new head of the security agency, Mr. Mathew Seiyefa.
Among the released detainees were seven Ijaw youths from Bayelsa State who had been arrested and detained since 2016.
The Bayelsa Seven had been detained at the Department of State Security headquarters in Abuja since 2016; they were released to their families who had gathered outside the agency’s office in the state capital to receive them.
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The free men who looked thoroughly unkept with overgrown beards and dirty clothes shed tears of joy as they embraced their friends and relatives as they breathed the air of freedom.
Reacting to his recent status as a free man, one of the Bayelsa Seven identified as Clinton Ohaigbofa, confirmed to reporters present that suspects held without trial by the DSS were being released en-masse across the country.
He also narrated his ordeal in DSS detention reiterating that he and his fellow prisoners were held in underground cells and experienced untold hardship at the hands of DSS operatives.
He also revealed that they were never charged to court and were not made aware of the reason for their detention in the underground cells.
Further narrating his experiences, he said;
“We didn’t do anything. We were arrested on May 24th, 2016. We were taken to the JTF headquarters in Opolo and were later transferred to DMI, Abuja.
After interrogation, we were transferred to Defence Intelligence Agency. On August 26, 2016, we were transferred to the Department of State Service, Abuja. We stayed there for over two years.”
He also went further to elaborate on the conditions in which he was detained;
“They treated us badly. We were held in an underground cell. They gave us little bread in the morning, little rice in the afternoon and a morsel of semovita in the evening.
Each portion of food cannot satisfy a two-year old baby. They deprived us of everything. They didn’t even take us to court. There was no freedom to even see light. They subjected us to severe punishment.
They kept us hungry and deprived us of medication. Suspects are being released massively because of the new DSS boss. I don’t know the actual number released so far. But we thank the new DSS boss.”