DSS operatives attack Buhari’s ex-campaign coordinator

The Anambra State Coordinator of the Muhammadu Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation in the 2007 presidential elections, Chief Ifeanyichukwu Nwokoye, was on Monday brutalised by men of the Department of State Service.

The DSS operatives reportedly beat Nwokoye to the extent that his sight had been affected.

Nwokoye alleged that he was brutalised because he refused to release information about 22 expatriate medical doctors invited by the Anambra State government for free medical mission in the state.

As of the time of filing this report on Wednesday, Nwokoye was receiving treatment at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Awka.

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But the DSS said Nwokoye was to be blamed because he allegedly held its men hostage in his hotel.

This, the DSS explained, necessitated the agency to send its operatives to the hotel to rescue the men.

The state DSS Director, Alex Okeiyi, told newsmen that the command had concluded arrangements to take Nwokoye to court for assault.

Okeiyi said, “People should learn to respect security operatives because we are working for them. Securing Anambra is at a cost, people should help us; our men are being targeted by hoodlums all the time.”

But Nwokoye insisted that the DSS men bundled him and his wife to the agency’s office at Amawbia and humiliated them.

He said, “I was handcuffed with my wife like common criminals. I have never seen such a thing all my life, the retina of my eyes has been damaged. I was humiliated for no offence committed.

“I was in the hotel when these people walked in, three of them, they said they had information that some expatriates were quartered in the hotel and they demanded for the photocopies of their passports.

“I demanded for their identities because we did not know them and the security situation in the land is terrible. They refused and one of them banged his hand on the table in anger, shouting that they will deal with me for refusing to cooperate with them.

“At that point, I moved outside the room and called the Divisional Police Officer at the Central Police Station and ordered the people to lock the hotel gate; that was all. It is like they called their office for reinforcement and about 20 minutes later, they came in siren-blaring vehicles.

“They started beating my wife and me. They handcuffed us and bundled us into their vehicle and took us to their office, where we were dumped in a cell. As if that was not enough, they brought me out after they had removed my shirt, trousers and underwear, but their boss came out and ordered them to clothe me.

“One of the men later came and kicked me at the lower part of my body and I fainted. When I regained consciousness, I saw myself on a stretcher in their clinic; that was exactly what happened.”

A government official, who pleaded not to be named, said the DSS operatives were wrong for the assault on Nwokoye.

The official said, “Why would they demand the photocopies and identities of the medical doctors brought in by the government to treat the indigent and less-privileged persons in the state?

“Why didn’t they contact the government and inquire from us?”