Confessional Video: Suspects In Court Give Account On How They Killed And Buried DSS Operatives

It was a shocking moment before a court in Lagos State on
Thursday as suspected kidnappers gave a graphic account of how they
ambushed, killed seven operatives of the Department of State
Security, DSS, and buried them in a shallow grave.

The video of their confession was played before Justice Hakeem
Oshodi of a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja.

The seven operatives of the DSS were killed while in the line of
duty in 2015.

The defendants standing trial for the alleged murder of the
seven deceased officers are Clement Ododomu, 25, and Tiwei Monday,
26.

They are facing an 8 count charge of murder and possession of
firearms.

In his confessional statement Monday, identified in the video,
said, “We killed the seven officers. We shot them one after the
other and buried them inside three graves in the Barracks”.

The investigative officer, Saheed Adetunji with the DSS said
that seven out of a team of nine personnel, sent on a kidnap rescue
mission, were ambushed by vandals and taken captive at Abule
Oba.

He said that the seven captured personnel were buried in three
separate shallow graves; three men were packed in one grave, two
men in one grave while the remaining two were put in one grave.

According to him, burnt body amours (bullet proof vests), shoes,
face caps belonging to the deceased personnel, including a Prado
Jeep, were recovered inside a creek, known as Barrack, where the
vandals used as their camping ground.

The deceased officers are identified as Uzor Nwafor, Kayode
Oladimeji, Luke Akande, Adebayo Adeniyi, Benjamin Mafo and Simeon
Owalabi.

He said further “The incident occurred in September 14, 2015
when the Lagos state command of DSS received a distress report from
one Mr. Nwosu from the Sun Newspaper about the kidnap of his wife
at their residence.

“The Lagos State Command immediately dispatched a-nine man team
to carry out a surveillance operation to ascertain the location of
the kidnappers that were negotiating for a ransom.

“However, in the evening at about 1800 hours, one of the team
members, Mr. Martins Ajayi, sent a distress text message to the
station saying, ‘We have been ambushed by vandals and our weapons
have been seized’.

“When Mr. Ajayi returned to the Command, he told us that they
were conducting a surveillance on some areas in Abule Oba, where
the calls of the purported kidnappers emanated from, when about
a-100 armed men with AK47 and pump action ambushed them.

“Ajayi said that the vandals collected their weapons and that he
was able to escape by jumping into a pit and hid himself. It was
inside the pit that he sent the distress message.

“But at that time, Ajayi wasn’t aware that another officer had
also escaped while the vandals dragged the other seven personnel
through the creeks into the forest.

It will be recalled that In October 10, 2015, there was a Joint
Security Operation; a combination of the DSS, the police, the Army
and the Nigerian Navy. This operation was launched on creeks at
Igbo-Olomu, Abule-Oba to Arepo in Ogun State to flush out militants
and arrested those in connection with the killing of the
Operatives.

In the process the two defendants were arrested and
interrogated, they confessed to their involvement.

He said he was among the vandals that chased and ambushed the
DSS personnel.

He said that they collected their guns, beat them, used teargas
on their faces and pushed them into a speed boat.

“The first defendant said that they took the seven DSS personnel
to their hideout, into the creeks, called Barracks.

According to him when they got to their Barracks, he personally
shot two of the DSS personnel with a pump action rifle, while one
Agbala shot the remaining five with an AK47.

Shockingly he told the interrogators that after the burial, a
3-day party celebration, with alcohol, was held in jubilation for
the death of the personnel.

The matter was further adjourned till November 6 for
continuation of trial.