Shocking – How Secret Police, SSS, ‘Tortured’ Man to Death – Then Paid Family N15 Million to Keep Mum

After “torturing” a man to death,
Nigeria’s secret police, SSS, exploited the influence of the Oba of
Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, to pay a paltry N15 million compensation to
the victim’s family, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

At about 2.30 a.m. on April 4, SSS
operatives on the trail of a suspect accused of cloning the phone
number of the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, stormed No
37, Aje Street, Pleasure, in the Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos in
commando style.

Residents of the address said the
operatives scaled the fence of the compound, screaming and
threatening as they knocked down doors and shattered ceilings. They
rough-handled residents, who thought they were armed robbers as
they did not introduce themselves, dragged them from their beds,
ordered them out of their apartments and forced them to sit on the
dusty ground of the compound.

About an hour later, when they were done
harassing the residents, Saheed Eyitayo, 34, a friend to the
suspect the operatives were looking for, laid in the dust
motionless – beaten to a pulp by the operatives.

One resident, who described the entire
experience as “nightmarish,” told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr. Eyitayo
was so battered that he couldn’t stand unaided – three operatives
had to drag his him into one of the vans the armed men brought with
them.

Unfortunately, that was the last time he
would be seen alive in public.

The operatives were led to the residence
by Adejoke Ogunbona, the wife of the wanted man, Rilwanu Jamiu.
While on the run for the alleged crime, Mr. Jamiu, who is now
facing trial alongside another suspect, had spent few days at Mr.
Eyitayo’s apartment before moving on to another place in the Oke
Aro area of Lagos, where he was eventually arrested.

It is not clear if Mr. Eyitayo knew his
friend was a fugitive when he allowed him to stay at his
apartment.

Mr. Jamiu’s wife had visited her husband
while he was hiding at Mr. Eyitayo’s apartment. Though she later
confessed that even though she knew her husband was no longer at
Mr. Eyitayo’s apartment, she took the SSS operatives there.

Suspicious death

Three days after the raid, the SSS
invited Mr. Eyitayo’s landlord, Mathew Sobiye, to the Lagos office
in Shangisha and told him, for the first time, that they had
carried out the raid on his compound and that Mr. Eyitayo was
dead.

They warned him not to disclose this to
anyone, the Septuagenarian said.

The SSS claimed Mr. Eyitayo was
resisting arrest on the night of the raid and tried to jump from
the moving van as he was being conveyed to their office. They said
he died from injuries sustained in the process.

But Mr. Eyitayo’s family would have none
of that. They claimed that from account of fellow tenants at his
Pleasure residence, he was already unconscious when he was
handcuffed and carried into the waiting van.

They wondered how an unconscious man in
chains could overpower several SSS operatives and jump to his
death. They said if the SSS had nothing to hide, it shouldn’t have
waited for 19 days before formally informing them of Mr. Eyitayo’s
death.

Michael Lasisi, one of Mr. Eyitayo’s
relatives, told PREMIUM TIMES that the SSS waited that long because
they were trying to perfect a fabricated story to hide the fact
that they tortured Mr. Eyitayo to death.

“We had gone to the SSS office several
times, and they told us ‘come back you cannot see him.’ Until
finally on the 23rd (of April), 19 days after he was killed, they
now told one of my brothers Oyetunji that he had died. Meanwhile
they had told the landlord not to tell anybody that he had
died.

“They did that so as the days elapsed
they would be able to manufacture lies to cover up the official
criminality. They could not tell us what he has done. They said his
friend was part of those who cloned the governor’s number. They
traced the friend to his house but they did not see him.

At a meeting between Mr. Eyitayo’s
family and the SSS on May 3 at their Shangisha office, angered by
an SSS attempt to implicate Mr. Eyitayo in the number cloning scam,
Mr. Lasisi and other family members walked out on the officials of
the secret service threatening to drag the agency to court.

“A SHOW OF SHAME”

Not wanting the story of the alleged
extrajudicial killing by its operatives out in the open, the SSS
approached Mr. Akiolu, the paramount traditional monarch in Lagos,
to appeal to the family of the dead man, after its original attempt
to use officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice failed to
assuage Mr. Eyitayo’s family.

Some members of the family said they
first suspected that something was fishy when those who had
resisted the antics of the Lagos State officials were exempted from
the delegation to meet with Mr. Akiolu.

“I think the SSS had told the Oba that
some members of the family who gave them a hard time during the
initial discussion shouldn’t be allowed to be part of the
negotiation. The excuse they gave was that the Oba did not want a
crowd in his palace,” a family member, who sought anonymity for
security reasons, said.

Several family sources present described
the negotiation at the monarch’s palace as a show of shame. They
said the moment the SSS offered to pay N15 million, some of the
most outspoken members of the delegation suddenly became quiet.

They said Mr. Akiolu doused the
flickering flame of resistance from the family members when he
appealed to them to accept what the SSS was offering in order to
bring a closure to the matter and stop acting like they were there
to sell the body of their dead kin.

“The family lawyer put up a spirited
effort to make the DSS [as the SSS is also called] pay more
compensation, but members of Saheed’s family would have none of
that,” an attendee at the meeting said.

“In fact, one of them was stepping on
his (lawyer’s) feet and telling him not to be too hard of the DSS
and to accept whatever the DSS was offering so that the matter can
be settled. The lawyer was almost in tears,” another family source
said.

“At a point, they even threatened to
fire the lawyer if he would not agree with the decision of the
family.”

“One of them said that they should
accept the offer of the DSS because the body of Saheed was
suffering and they needed to bury him urgently to stop the
suffering,” the source said.

Another source, however, added that Mr
Akiolu insisted that N10 million be given entirely to the parents
of the deceased. He also insisted that the SSS must pay the
lawyer’s professional fees.

According to our sources, the N5 million
that was remaining from the compensation paid was shared among
members of the deceased’s family involved in the negotiation.

Meanwhile, even as they agreed to accept
the compensation, none of the victim’s family members had seen his
corpse as the SSS did not disclose where it kept the body.

The family did not also press the SSS to
conduct an autopsy on the deceased as required by Lagos State laws
for persons who died under suspicious circumstances like Mr.
Eyitayo

“The DSS did not allow the family see
the corpse of the dead victim before they forced the family to
reach a negotiation. That was the plan. When they finished the
negotiation, they called Saheed’s uncle to come and look at the
body but he was only shown his legs,” one of our sources said.

CUT AND BRUISES ALL OVER

Family members who saw Mr. Eyitayo’s
corpse after it was released for burial by the SSS said it dawned
on them the reason the agency refused to let his family see the
body before the negotiation was concluded and all documents
signed.

“If you see the corpse, you would know
that he was tortured and killed in a brutal manner. He had two deep
cuts in the back of his head, apparently inflicted by a machete or
other similar sharp objects. There were cuts and bruises all over
his body,” the source said.

As part of the agreement reached with
the deceased family, the SSS agreed to foot the bill for his
funeral. Mr. Eyitayo’s body was carried to his hometown in Oyo for
burial in the most disrespectful manner, the source said.

“If you see the way they carried his
body home. They couldn’t even get a proper vehicle to deliver his
body to his family.

“They got a rickety vehicle. On their
way to Oyo State, the vehicle conveying his body was so old that
its tyres bust twice before it got to the town. And they spent
several hours on the road fixing the tyres.

“His body was not even put in a casket.
He was taken home for burial in a body bag made of jute sack. The
type used for keeping rice.

Babs Animashaun, the lawyer who
represented the family, declined to discuss details of the
negotiation when reached for comments. He however said the family
has moved on after settlement.

“That is strictly confidential between
the parties. I cannot share the details of the settlement with the
public,” he said.

“The family agreed to settle with the
SSS out of court. They can never be happy with what has happened
but at least they were able to move on. That is what is important,”
he added.

The SSS could not be reached for
comments. The agency does not have a spokesperson, neither does it
have an email address or phone number through which it can be
contacted. Before the current administration, the SSS used to have
a spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, but the current leadership of the
agency led by Lawal Daura, has refused to appoint one or disclose
how it should be officially contacted for enquiries.

When PREMIUM TIMES visited the palace of
the Oba of Lagos to ask about his role in the saga, officials
requested a formal letter. About two weeks after the letter was
delivered, the monarch has not responded or agreed to a formal
interview

The post Shocking – How Secret Police, SSS, ‘Tortured’ Man
to Death – Then Paid Family N15 Million to Keep Mum appeared
first on Welcome to 9jalegal – Nigeria’s Leading Legal Information
and Services Portal.

After “torturing” a man to death,
Nigeria’s secret police, SSS, exploited the influence of the Oba of
Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, to pay a paltry N15 million compensation to
the victim’s family, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

At about 2.30 a.m. on April 4, SSS
operatives on the trail of a suspect accused of cloning the phone
number of the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, stormed No
37, Aje Street, Pleasure, in the Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos in
commando style.

Residents of the address said the
operatives scaled the fence of the compound, screaming and
threatening as they knocked down doors and shattered ceilings. They
rough-handled residents, who thought they were armed robbers as
they did not introduce themselves, dragged them from their beds,
ordered them out of their apartments and forced them to sit on the
dusty ground of the compound.

About an hour later, when they were done
harassing the residents, Saheed Eyitayo, 34, a friend to the
suspect the operatives were looking for, laid in the dust
motionless – beaten to a pulp by the operatives.

One resident, who described the entire
experience as “nightmarish,” told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr. Eyitayo
was so battered that he couldn’t stand unaided – three operatives
had to drag his him into one of the vans the armed men brought with
them.

Unfortunately, that was the last time he
would be seen alive in public.

The operatives were led to the residence
by Adejoke Ogunbona, the wife of the wanted man, Rilwanu Jamiu.
While on the run for the alleged crime, Mr. Jamiu, who is now
facing trial alongside another suspect, had spent few days at Mr.
Eyitayo’s apartment before moving on to another place in the Oke
Aro area of Lagos, where he was eventually arrested.

It is not clear if Mr. Eyitayo knew his
friend was a fugitive when he allowed him to stay at his
apartment.

Mr. Jamiu’s wife had visited her husband
while he was hiding at Mr. Eyitayo’s apartment. Though she later
confessed that even though she knew her husband was no longer at
Mr. Eyitayo’s apartment, she took the SSS operatives there.

Suspicious death

Three days after the raid, the SSS
invited Mr. Eyitayo’s landlord, Mathew Sobiye, to the Lagos office
in Shangisha and told him, for the first time, that they had
carried out the raid on his compound and that Mr. Eyitayo was
dead.

They warned him not to disclose this to
anyone, the Septuagenarian said.

The SSS claimed Mr. Eyitayo was
resisting arrest on the night of the raid and tried to jump from
the moving van as he was being conveyed to their office. They said
he died from injuries sustained in the process.

But Mr. Eyitayo’s family would have none
of that. They claimed that from account of fellow tenants at his
Pleasure residence, he was already unconscious when he was
handcuffed and carried into the waiting van.

They wondered how an unconscious man in
chains could overpower several SSS operatives and jump to his
death. They said if the SSS had nothing to hide, it shouldn’t have
waited for 19 days before formally informing them of Mr. Eyitayo’s
death.

Michael Lasisi, one of Mr. Eyitayo’s
relatives, told PREMIUM TIMES that the SSS waited that long because
they were trying to perfect a fabricated story to hide the fact
that they tortured Mr. Eyitayo to death.

“We had gone to the SSS office several
times, and they told us ‘come back you cannot see him.’ Until
finally on the 23rd (of April), 19 days after he was killed, they
now told one of my brothers Oyetunji that he had died. Meanwhile
they had told the landlord not to tell anybody that he had
died.

“They did that so as the days elapsed
they would be able to manufacture lies to cover up the official
criminality. They could not tell us what he has done. They said his
friend was part of those who cloned the governor’s number. They
traced the friend to his house but they did not see him.

At a meeting between Mr. Eyitayo’s
family and the SSS on May 3 at their Shangisha office, angered by
an SSS attempt to implicate Mr. Eyitayo in the number cloning scam,
Mr. Lasisi and other family members walked out on the officials of
the secret service threatening to drag the agency to court.

“A SHOW OF SHAME”

Not wanting the story of the alleged
extrajudicial killing by its operatives out in the open, the SSS
approached Mr. Akiolu, the paramount traditional monarch in Lagos,
to appeal to the family of the dead man, after its original attempt
to use officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice failed to
assuage Mr. Eyitayo’s family.

Some members of the family said they
first suspected that something was fishy when those who had
resisted the antics of the Lagos State officials were exempted from
the delegation to meet with Mr. Akiolu.

“I think the SSS had told the Oba that
some members of the family who gave them a hard time during the
initial discussion shouldn’t be allowed to be part of the
negotiation. The excuse they gave was that the Oba did not want a
crowd in his palace,” a family member, who sought anonymity for
security reasons, said.

Several family sources present described
the negotiation at the monarch’s palace as a show of shame. They
said the moment the SSS offered to pay N15 million, some of the
most outspoken members of the delegation suddenly became quiet.

They said Mr. Akiolu doused the
flickering flame of resistance from the family members when he
appealed to them to accept what the SSS was offering in order to
bring a closure to the matter and stop acting like they were there
to sell the body of their dead kin.

“The family lawyer put up a spirited
effort to make the DSS [as the SSS is also called] pay more
compensation, but members of Saheed’s family would have none of
that,” an attendee at the meeting said.

“In fact, one of them was stepping on
his (lawyer’s) feet and telling him not to be too hard of the DSS
and to accept whatever the DSS was offering so that the matter can
be settled. The lawyer was almost in tears,” another family source
said.

“At a point, they even threatened to
fire the lawyer if he would not agree with the decision of the
family.”

“One of them said that they should
accept the offer of the DSS because the body of Saheed was
suffering and they needed to bury him urgently to stop the
suffering,” the source said.

Another source, however, added that Mr
Akiolu insisted that N10 million be given entirely to the parents
of the deceased. He also insisted that the SSS must pay the
lawyer’s professional fees.

According to our sources, the N5 million
that was remaining from the compensation paid was shared among
members of the deceased’s family involved in the negotiation.

Meanwhile, even as they agreed to accept
the compensation, none of the victim’s family members had seen his
corpse as the SSS did not disclose where it kept the body.

The family did not also press the SSS to
conduct an autopsy on the deceased as required by Lagos State laws
for persons who died under suspicious circumstances like Mr.
Eyitayo

“The DSS did not allow the family see
the corpse of the dead victim before they forced the family to
reach a negotiation. That was the plan. When they finished the
negotiation, they called Saheed’s uncle to come and look at the
body but he was only shown his legs,” one of our sources said.

CUT AND BRUISES ALL OVER

Family members who saw Mr. Eyitayo’s
corpse after it was released for burial by the SSS said it dawned
on them the reason the agency refused to let his family see the
body before the negotiation was concluded and all documents
signed.

“If you see the corpse, you would know
that he was tortured and killed in a brutal manner. He had two deep
cuts in the back of his head, apparently inflicted by a machete or
other similar sharp objects. There were cuts and bruises all over
his body,” the source said.

As part of the agreement reached with
the deceased family, the SSS agreed to foot the bill for his
funeral. Mr. Eyitayo’s body was carried to his hometown in Oyo for
burial in the most disrespectful manner, the source said.

“If you see the way they carried his
body home. They couldn’t even get a proper vehicle to deliver his
body to his family.

“They got a rickety vehicle. On their
way to Oyo State, the vehicle conveying his body was so old that
its tyres bust twice before it got to the town. And they spent
several hours on the road fixing the tyres.

“His body was not even put in a casket.
He was taken home for burial in a body bag made of jute sack. The
type used for keeping rice.

Babs Animashaun, the lawyer who
represented the family, declined to discuss details of the
negotiation when reached for comments. He however said the family
has moved on after settlement.

“That is strictly confidential between
the parties. I cannot share the details of the settlement with the
public,” he said.

“The family agreed to settle with the
SSS out of court. They can never be happy with what has happened
but at least they were able to move on. That is what is important,”
he added.

The SSS could not be reached for
comments. The agency does not have a spokesperson, neither does it
have an email address or phone number through which it can be
contacted. Before the current administration, the SSS used to have
a spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, but the current leadership of the
agency led by Lawal Daura, has refused to appoint one or disclose
how it should be officially contacted for enquiries.

When PREMIUM TIMES visited the palace of
the Oba of Lagos to ask about his role in the saga, officials
requested a formal letter. About two weeks after the letter was
delivered, the monarch has not responded or agreed to a formal
interview

The post Shocking – How Secret Police, SSS, ‘Tortured’ Man
to Death – Then Paid Family N15 Million to Keep Mum appeared
first on Welcome to 9jalegal – Nigeria’s Leading Legal Information
and Services Portal.