IPOB Member Narrates In Court How DSS Officials Chained, Threatened To Kill Him

A member of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, identified as Chidiebere Onwudiwe, while in at the Federal High Court on Wednesday stated that the officials of the Department of State Services allegedly chained and threatened to kill him while he was in their custody.

Onwudiwe raised this allegation while testifying as a witness in a trial ordered by the court to ascertain if the DSS officials coerced him to give a statement.

The witness who had the company of his counsel,Ifeanyi Ejiofor further stated in the court that he was locked up in an underground cell in blindfold.

“I was brought from Port Harcourt to Abuja in July 2016, blindfolded, chained and kept in a room.”

“After some days, they took me to another facility within the DSS premises called New Echo. It was there I met Mr. CB, who told me to make a statement but I asked him what my offence was.”

“Then one man that looked like the boss slapped me from the back and asked me: ‘Do you want to die here, there is nothing like a lawyer here, you will write what we tell you to write,” and he assigned me to Mr. CB.”

“I was then sent to a smaller room in the basement, with an air-conditioning system of about two horsepower where I slept on tiles with only my boxers on.”

“I spent about a month there, blindfolded and drinking water from the tap,” the witness told the court.”

He also claimed that apart from the data page other information was written by the DSS officials for him to rewrite.

The judge in charge of the trail, Justice Binta Nyako called on the counsel to file, serve and exchange written addresses.

She adjourned the matter until May 28, for counsel to address the court.

The court ordered the trial-within-trial on Tuesday after Ejiofor told the court that his client alleged that all the statements he gave to the DSS were obtained under duress.

Onwudiwe is standing trial alongside Bright Chimezie, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi, on an amended three-count charge bordering on conspiracy to commit treasonable felony and improper importation of goods.