BREAKING! DSS Releases Ijaw Activist Kept In Underground Cell For One Year Over N’Delta Crisis

Mr. Ezekiel Daniel who released today by DSS

Ijaw activist and spokesman of Ijaw Peoples Development Initiative, (IPDI), Comrade Ezekiel Daniel has been released by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) in Asaba, Delta state.

Daniel was freed around 4:pm today (Sunday), BigPen Online can report.

Daniel travail started after he allegedly exposed the identity of the persons who led soldiers to arrest two Ijaw youths alleged to be connected to ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, at the wake of Niger Delta Avengers strikes in February, 2016.

After he reportedly made the exposure, DSS detectives around August 2016 swooped on him over trumped-up allegation leveled against him by an All Progressive Congress (APC) chieftain, Chief Michael Johnny that he was the spokesperson of Niger Delta Avengers.

Investigation revealed that he was since then kept in the underground cell of DSS at its Headsqueaters in Abuja, the federal capital territory until yesterday (Saturday) when he was moved to Asaba office, where he was today (Sunday) released to members of his family.

National President of IPDI, Austin Ozobo, who confirmed this story in a telephone conversation with BigPen Online on Sunday evening said that the victim was let out of the hooks after the DSS panel of inquiry which investigated the allegations found out that he was not culpable.

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“They set up panel of inquiry over it but the panel reported that he was innocent of the trump-up charges against him.

“Now I can confirm to you that Mr Ezekiel Daniel is back home with his family. He was exonerated from the baseless allegations of being Avengers spokesman.

“It was all handiwork of Micheal Johnny, an APC chieftain. He leveled the allegations against him and ensured they kept him incommunicado for this long.

“We even filed a bail application to get him out and the matter is still in court but thank God they have released him and it is all for good”.

“The issue is that he was unlawfully detained for over a year so they unconditionally released him today”.

According to him, IPDI however wrote several petitions to various security agents while the matter lasted, saying that many forces intervened, noting the prominent role played by President of Ijaw Youth Council, Barr. Eric Omare who also filed a bail application in Abuja to ensure he and other detainees are not persecuted unjustly.

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BigPen Online recalls that IYC has been on the campaign for the release of all detainees of Niger Delta crisis particularly those arrested in the wake of Niger Delta Avengers strikes in 2016.

Besides Ezekiel Daniel who has now been released, IYC had listed some of those still in custody over suspicion of aiding militancy in the region as Sely Torugbedi, Alex Odogu, IYC Abuja spokesman and Jones Abiri, a Bayelsa-based journalist among those being “unjustly” held by the federal government.

Omare had maintained that even in cases where the detained persons have sought, the intervention of the courts for their release, the government has bluntly declined to obey the orders of court.

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