The Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Oluwatosin Adeola Ajayi, has ordered the release of Kenneth Okechukwu Nwafor, an Abia State indigene.
Naijaonpoint reports that Nwafor had been in custody since July 2022 over alleged links to the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Nwafor, who hails from Isuikwuato Local Government Area, was also awarded ₦5 million compensation and free medical care after a fresh internal review reportedly cleared him of wrongdoing.
Security sources told ThisDay that the DG directed investigators to revisit all inherited cases, insisting that detentions must comply strictly with due process and the Service’s Standard Operating Procedure.
A source said: “The DG directed his investigation officers to conduct detailed review of all pending cases and they have been dutifully doing that. Nwafor’s case is one of such cases’.
“The gesture, one of the several by the DG, is a testament to his resolve to comply with the rule of law and adherence to the service standard operating procedure.”
He added that three Abia men, Udemba, Onyedikachi and Eze, suspected of belongings to IPOB, were equally released.
“Mr Tosin Ajayi acknowledges that as humans, we sometimes make mistakes. He also believes that when such mistakes are made, the right thing is to make amends. That is why he has established a culture of accountability and humanly makes efforts to remedy the mistakes of the Agency,” added the source.
“Remember he paid N20 million as compensation to one Jos- based businessman who was erroneously shot on the leg in the course of a security operation in 2016. Even when the court awarded N10 million in damages against the DSS, the agency refused to pay until Ajayi became DG. He doubled the money.
“Nwafor isn’t the first Igbo to be released and compensated under similar circumstances. Some months ago, the DG ordered the release of three young men wrongfully detained for belonging to IPOB.
“Last month, he paid N10 million as compensation to the Abuja-based Igbo businesswoman arrested by a sister security agency for alleged illegal oil bunkering. The DG added N10 million for five others to share. This has become the trend since the new DSS leadership.”
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