Command, has cried out for help over his deteriorating health condition after spending 100 days in illegal detention.
Olamilekan Hammed, the journalist detained by the lawless Department of State Services (DSS), the Ogun State Command, has cried out for help over his deteriorating health condition after spending 100 days in illegal detention.
SaharaReporters had reported that Hammed was accused of publishing a story exposing the criminal activities of Governor Dapo Abiodun and his involvement in the credit card fraud in Miami-Dade Florida, the United States of America.
The Publisher of eaglesforesight.com.ng was detained in May 2022 following an invitation for questioning by the service on the order of the Governor, despite being forced to pull down the story from his website.
Hammed said he was languishing in detention and his health was deteriorating as he was in dire need of medical attention.
“Since his arrest, he has reportedly been subjected to torture, degrading and inhuman treatments by the operatives of the service. He has also been denied access to his family and medical care,” a source told SaharaReporters on Saturday.
SaharaReporters had in March published the criminal record of how Abiodun was jailed in 1986 for credit card fraud in Miami-Dade, Florida, USA.
The governor was said to have used a pseudo name (Shawn Michael Davids) with the aim of concealing his criminal identity.
The record revealed that Abiodun was jailed for committing criminal offences which bordered on credit card fraud, petty theft and cheque forgery.
He was arrested on November 7, 1986, for fighting and injuring a police officer in an attempt to resist arrest.
While being processed at the station, his fingerprint was run through the crime database and it was discovered that the Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun being processed for detention was the same as Shawn Michael Davids.
His criminal record and history were thus cemented and he was jailed.
According to some documents obtained by SaharaReporters, Abiodun's jail number was 8600B9436.
In 2015, while contesting for the Ogun East Senatorial seat against the late Buruji Kasamu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he applied for the redaction of his criminal records in Miami-Dade, Florida.
This act of concealment meant he could lie on his Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) forms that he had no prior criminal records; a perjury offence that could have disqualified him from ever holding an appointive or elective office in Nigeria.
The redaction was granted in August 2015.
SaharaReporters had also on July 19 reported that the journalist, Hammed, was forced by the DSS to delete the publication from his website.
Hammed was said to have been first arrested on April 29, six days after the publication, and released on bail. He was rearrested on May 13, 2022, and has been in detention ever since.
Hammed had said, “The first charge they brought against me was that I quoted the PDP in the story on how he was arrested in the USA on money laundering charges. They forced me to pull it down, but despite pulling it down, they are still using it against me.
“The DSS arrested me at about 9:40am on April 29. I was coming out of Conference Hotel, Abeokuta, when I saw their Hilux. I recognised them but they handcuffed me immediately, masked me and took me away.
“I did not see anything until 6pm when they started interrogating me. From morning till 6pm, I was in handcuffs and a mask. During the interrogation, they asked who sponsored the story and I told them no one paid me to conjecture the story.
“They told me to bail myself and provide a surety. I did, and was released at night, sometime around 9:20pm.”