March 13, (THEWILL) – The Ijaw Youths Council Worldwide has called on the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Inspector General of Police, to investigate and discipline officers involved in the illegal arrest and detention of a youth Activist, Mr Collins Opumie, for over two years without trial.
The National Spokesman for the umbrella Ijaw Youth body, Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe, alleged that Mr Opumie was abducted in a Gestapo manner from his base in Yenagoa and detained in underground facilities shortly after his company was shortlisted among the top three bidding firms for a contract to supply three million litres of diesel monthly by the Nigeria Agip Oil Company in 2016.
Comrade Ekerefe also said the IYC would petition the AGIP headquarters in Milan, Italy, over the alleged involvement of some of the staff of the company in the unlawful arrest and detention of the victim.
According to Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe, the travails of Mr Collins Trueman Opumie, a native of Opuama Community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State started in February 2016 when his bid for the contract was listed among the top three in a monthly supply of three million litres of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) or Diesel, by a Former General Manager, Nigeria Agip Oil Company, Mr Marco Rotondi, a decision which reportedly did not go down well with some Agip staff.
Ekerefe alleged that shortly afterwards, Mr Opumie had a phone conversation with the head of Security of the Company after which he was abducted by some armed men, said to be DSS operatives from the Federal Medical Centre in August 2016, falsely accused of attacking oil pipelines and Agip facilities in Southern Ijaw, taken to the Yenagoa cemetery with threats to kill him and bury him in an unidentified grave if he fails to agree to their claim that he sent the Company a text threatening to carry out the act.
He said the victim was masked and thrown into the boot of a vehicle and all through the journey to Abuja, he was denied food and water and bled from his mouth, nose, and ears, subjected to torture and abuse by the DSS operatives and kept in their underground detention facility known as the “Hot Room” for 730 days.
While vowing to petition the Nigeria Agip Oil Company to its headquarters in Italy over the incident, the IYC Spokesman urged the Director General of the Department of State Services and the Inspector General of Police to discipline officers involved in the act.
Meanwhile, Mr Collins Opumie has filed a suit in a Bayelsa State High Court sitting in Yenagoa over his alleged illegal arrest and detention, demanding N9 billion in damages, praying the court to declare that his arrest, torture and subsequent detention without proper food and medical attention and access to family members for two years as a gross violation of his fundamental rights and dignity as a person.
A hearing on the matter comes up at the State High Court on Wednesday, 15th of March, 2023.
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