Nigeria’s secret police, Department of State Services (DSS), has released four activists arrested for pasting ‘Akeredolu; Resume or Resign’ posters in Akure, Ondo State.
SaharaReporters learnt about the release of the activists on Sunday evening.
However, it was also learnt that the activists were tortured and denied food and water during their illegal incarceration.
They were also denied access to their relations and lawyers while being handcuffed in a crowded cell.
“They were tortured and handcuffed in a crowded cell. They were denied water, food and access to their families and their lawyers,” a source privy to their experience said on Sunday.
SaharaReporters reported the arrest of the activists by the Southwest Security Network agency code-named Amotekun and their onward transfer to the DSS on Friday.
The activists were identified as Oguniyi Babajide, Ogunsusu Tope, Ahmed and Are Aka Efo.
Tope Temokun, the lawyer representing the organisers on Friday said Amotekun security outfit confirmed the arrest of the activists to him but also told him that they had been over to the DSS.
SaharaReporters learnt that the quartet were last seen around 1.30 pm on Friday, pasting ‘Akeredolu Must Go’ posters in Akure.
Civil society organisation, Take-It-Back Movement and #RevolutionNow convener, Omoyele Sowore, had announced that there would be a town hall meeting in Akure on Saturday, December 16 to call on ailing Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to return to office or resign.
Sowore had added that the meeting would mark the beginning of street protests in Akure, the state capital and across the state to demand Akeredolu's resignation.
This followed Akeredolu’s refusal to resign from office despite his ill health and failure to set foot in Ondo State since June when he left for a three-month medical leave to Germany.
Following his return to Nigeria in September, Akeredolu stayed at his residence in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, from where he made futile attempts to run the affairs of the state while being treated for leukemia.
Meanwhile, sources earlier told SaharaReporters that Akeredolu had been receiving chemotherapy, which always knocked him out for 10 hours.
But on Wednesday, the Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Mr Olamide Oladiji, announced that he had received a letter from ailing Governor Akeredolu that he was proceeding on medical leave later that day, two days after President Bola Tinubu made the directive, to resolve the leadership crisis in the state.
Oladiji said the state deputy governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa would subsequently assume the responsibilities of the governor in an acting capacity till there was a written declaration to the contrary.
On Monday evening, Sowore, in a post shared on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, said that the Deji of Akure Palace had sent him a letter informing him of the cancellation of the booking made for the venue of the town hall meeting.
He said he had received information that the DSS had pressured the Deji of Akure, Oba Aladetoyinbo Ogunlade Aladelusi, Odundun II, not to release the hall for the event.
But the activist and candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections swiftly said he had instructed his lawyers to file a suit against the Deji of Akure Palace and the DSS over their attempt to cancel his booking of Akure Town Hall for an event on Saturday.
According to Sowore, the DSS asked the monarch to return the N100,000 deposit he had made.
Meanwhile, the town hall meeting went on as planned on Saturday.
During the town hall meeting, Sowore described Akeredolu as the most expensive ghost worker in Nigeria’s public sector history.
Governor Akeredolu was last seen in an official capacity on May 17, 2023, when he played host to the Ondo State Cocoa Council delegation led by its chairman, Dr. Olusegun Awolumate, at the Governor’s Office, Alagbaka, Akure, the state capital.
Since then, Akeredolu has been conspicuously missing at public events. This raised eyebrows among Nigerians who expressed concerns about the governor’s health status.
He said, “Akeredolu has become a ghost worker in Ondo State. He is the most expensive ghost worker in Nigerian history. Somebody who did not come to work but squandered N7.9 billion on security votes.”
The human rights advocate also berated President Tinubu for turning a blind eye to the alleged forgery of Akeredolu’s signature by his cronies in the state.
He continued: “And we need to tell their senior brother in Abuja, Tinubu; I don’t know why he thinks he can sit in Abuja and tell Ondo State people what to do. Ondo State is different from Lagos. Ondo state is different from the nonsense that brought them to power.
“And I don’t know, Tinubu always loves people with forgery. How can you accept a forgery of a signature of a governor even after they claimed they resolved the problem? He still asked them to go and forge another letter. Ask the member of the House of Assembly to show you a copy of the letter they said that Akeredolu wrote again. You cannot find a letter because there is no letter.”