Skip to main content

How My Husband Was Arrested By Lawless Department Of State Services Operatives For Over Two Weeks – Woman Laments

She stated that her husband was arrested by the DSS men on a hospital's premises where they had gone to receive treatment.

A Rivers State resident, Mrs Joy Dansi, has said that she has not heard from her husband, Ledisi Dansi, who was arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services.

She stated that her husband was arrested by the DSS men on a hospital's premises where they had gone to receive treatment.

Image


She identified the facility as Pamo Clinic, Aba Road, Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

The woman told SaharaReporters on Monday that the last time she saw her husband was on August 11, 2021 when he came visiting at the hospital.

Dansi further revealed that her husband’s friend and neighbour, Felix Kpobari Badey, told her that some men who presented themselves like operatives of the Department of State Services had accosted him that same day looking for her husband.

“It happened on the 11th of August. On the 10th, my kids and I went to the hospital because we were not feeling fine. If you observe my voice, I’m still not fine. We went for treatment because my little baby was convulsing. We were admitted to Pamo clinic at Aba Road, Port Harcourt.

 “When my husband visited the next day, he attended to us and now went to rest in the premises because there was no space for him to stay in the ward they moved us to. He even left the phone with me to be charging. I was waiting for him. He was supposed to bring us food as well. After hours without seeing him, I began to look for him,” Mrs Dansi said.

She narrated that she asked the staff and patients in the hospital if they knew the whereabouts of her husband, but nobody had a clue.

Mrs Dansi, who wept uncontrollably while narrating her travails to SaharaReporters, said it was when all efforts to see her husband proved abortive a few days after that she asked her husband’s friend, Badey, in the neighbourhood.

But to her bewilderment, Badey told her how some men came in two tinted cars and approached him, saying they asked for the identity of his friend, Mr Dansi.

 Mrs Dansi said Badey took them to their house without their knowledge, and he told them where her husband was in the hospital when they didn’t see anybody at home.

“I asked the hospital staff, they said they didn’t see him. I called his friend, our neighbour if he saw him. I had to call my sister-in-law on the phone, and she came to meet me in the hospital. I went to security if he saw anything unusual in the hospital premises, but he said no.

“After twenty hours, we went to report at the police station, Umokoro. They gave me IPO Amadi. He said we have to apply for CCTV camera to know how my husband disappeared. My sister-in-law’s husband contacted a lawyer with N20,000 to write a petition but they didn’t reply.

“After three days, he said he was there when some men drove tinted cars to the hospital and took my husband away. He said the DSS called him and told him that they wanted to give my husband a job. The issue happened on Wednesday and he didn’t tell anyone until Sunday when he called my father-in-law and told him.

“It was on the 17th August that one of the doctors sent me a message to our lawyer that my husband was picked up by DSS there,” Mrs Dansi added.

When asked if Mr Dansi had any conflicting issue with anybody, the woman said all she could say was that her husband was a former chairman of workers’ union body in his place of work at Julius Berger but preferred not to reveal details.

“He was the former Union chairman in his place of work. His secretary later became the new chairman. That was before COVID-19. I went to the DSS three times, and they said he was not with them. Human rights wrote to Pamo hospital to produce my husband within 48 hours.

“I need to say this that Inspector Amadi collected a N10,000 mobilisation fee from me, but when we did not see any result, my family members accompanied me to the police station again. We shouted at him and he returned the N10,000 he asked us for mobilization.

“We are blaming my neighbour, Mr Badey for holding that kind of information that has to do with someone's life without telling his people. We are neighbours for Christ sake,” she lamented.

Topics
Human Rights