She sang and danced joyfully as she made her way into the living room. Not minding the presence of the reporter, she urged two of her grandchildren sitting on the sofa – Umar, 6, Ismail, 4 – to join her. It is one of the happiest periods in the life of Alhaja Alimotu Jumoh. Since the release of her son – Ustaz Abdul-Ganiyu – on Monday, September 7, 2015 from a State Security Service’s detention facility in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, renewed energy appears to have suddenly filled the 78-year-old’s ageing veins and bones. Her gratitude to God knows no bound.

“I am very grateful to Almighty Allah for bringing my son back home safely,” she said excitedly, offering our correspondent a seat in the expansive living room at the family house in a remote part of Ota in Ogun State on Tuesday. “I shed tears, cried out to my God for more than one year and I am glad He heard me. There is no word to describe how I feel having my son back home,” she said before sinking into a chair.

Looking a pale shadow of his old, bulky self, Abdul-Ganiyu could barely manage to utter a few words when our correspondent visited the family earlier in the week. Fourteen months of being moved from one detention facility to another had sadly taken its toll on him. He looks totally unhealthy and malnourished.

The cleric’s ordeal started in the early hours of July 5, 2014 when about nine fully armed policemen stormed their Sango, Ogun State home in commando-style and whisked him and his wife, Muinat, away after thoroughly searching their apartment and scrutinising his mobile phone. It was a few days after he had conducted a Ramadan lecture in the area. For several weeks after July 5, the whereabouts of the Ondo State native and his wife remained a mystery. Though, the matter was promptly reported at the Sango Police station, for the next two months, relatives and friends were left in the dark as to where they were.

But on September 10, a relative of the couple, Lukman Oketokun, received a call to come to the DSS office in Abeokuta where he later found them. Through the help of a lawyer, Muinat was released following complications arising from her pregnancy but Abdul-Ganiyu remained in custody until last Monday when he finally tasted freedom. His release came several weeks after a Federal High Court in the Ogun State capital ordered the secret police to set him free after failing to pin a specific crime on him.


Abdul-Ganiyu and family

Speaking with our correspondent earlier in the week at the family house where doctors are keeping a close watch over his health, the 39-year-old cleric says he had been persecuted unjustly for committing no offence. The Quaranic scholar said nobody gave him any concrete reason for his arrest and detention for more than one year and that he still wonders what his sin ever was.

“Till I was released on Monday none of the SSS officials could tell me why I was arrested and detained for that long. They only asked me how I came about a number on my phone contact list. By the time we got to their office, they asked again how I got that phone number and I told them it belonged to a friend I had known for a long time and that I don’t even remember the person’s name again because we hadn’t communicated for a long time. Apart from that, they didn’t also say who their findings revealed the person to be.

“At first I thought that after I and my wife were taken to their office, we would just be interrogated and then allowed to go home. But before I knew it, one day became two days and later one week and so on. It was at that point I realised it wasn’t a small issue like I had thought. My only hope at that point was God because I had completely lost hope in getting out of that place.

“Though, I was given a decent meal and had access to medication when I needed it, I do not wish for my enemies to pass through what I experienced in detention. It was psychological torture of the highest order. I was completely cut off from the world and had no communication whatsoever with the outside world. Throughout my time in detention, I could not sleep, I was always thinking about my family and how they could be managing without me. There were no mattress in the cell but only a mat but I couldn’t sleep most of the time because of the constant fear of what could happen next.

“To be confined to one spot and have your life completely controlled by others is a big psychological injury. For someone like me who had never been to a police station before to go through all of that, it was really traumatic. The experience is something I don’t wish for my enemies,” he said.

An excited Muinat could not hide her joy at having her husband and best friend back home safely after several months in solitary confinement. The young mother told Saturday PUNCH that she and her children could not also find sleep on several occasions while Abdul-Ganiyu was locked up and how prayers became their only consolation throughout the agonising period.

“Immediately I got the news that he was going to be released last Monday, I knew that my God was alive and surely answers prayers. Throughout the period he was in detention, life was tough for me and the children but then, we never ceased praying. We would wake up every night and cry to Allah to bring him back home soon and safely.

“While he was in detention, his thoughts would come to the mind of the children anytime they see any item belonging to him in the house. They would ask me when he was coming back. Sometimes I won’t know what to tell them. At a point I had to stop my teaching job because I needed to take care of the children. We survived those periods through the benevolence of a few people whom God touched their hearts to assist us. Through God’s mercies we pulled through, and to now have him back into the house after more than one year in detention for no reason, feels more than good. In fact the feeling is indescribable,” she said.

Abdul-Ganiyu’s release by the secret police last Monday follows a June 18, 2015 order by Justice F.O.G. Ogunbanjo of a Federal High Court sitting in the Ogun State capital who frowned at his continued confinement without being charged to court as stated by the law. Ogunbanjo had ruled that Jumoh’s detention breached Section 36 of the constitution and grossly violated his right.

“The DSS did not deny the arrest of the applicant and subsequent arrest of the 2nd applicant, but denied all other allegations contained in the motion,” the judge said.

The cleric’s counsel, Ahmed Adetola-Kazeem, had taken up the case following a report by Saturday PUNCH of October 25, 2014 where his young children lamented how life had become miserable and lonely for them without their parents. Though, he demanded for N300m in damages, the judge ordered the DSS to pay the applicant N1m for the pains it had caused him both physically and mentally and also tender a public apology to Jumoh who it accused of terrorism.

http://www.punchng.com/feature/super-saturday-feature/my-enemies-shouldnt-even-experience-what-i-passed-through-islamic-cleric-detained-by-sss-for-14-months/

Hmmmmm
Buhari
Buhari
Buhari eee
how many times did I call you?