The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the DSS of resorting to the use of torture to obtain forced confessions from the workers who were arrested during the first raid on the party’s Data Centre in Ikeja, calling it a contravention of the UN Convention against Torture to which Nigeria is a signatory and a violation of the citizens’ fundamental human rights.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said for the avoidance of doubt, it is necessary to quote a relevant section of the UN Convention to put the DSS on notice that it may be treading on dangerous ground, as it continues in its efforts to intimidate, harass and weaken the opposition to give the PDP an undue advantage ahead of next year’s polls. It quoted Part 1 Article 1 of the UN Convention as saying in part: ”For the purpose of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession……” APC said the DSS personnel who arrested the workers shackled their hands and legs and blindfolded them while they were being taken to Abuja.

”The workers remained in chains even at the dark detention cell where they were made to sleep on the bare floor for the 10 days they were detained illegally, while none of their family members knew their whereabouts all through their ordeal. Guns were pointed at their heads by DSS personnel who threatened to shoot them, while verbal insults were hauled at them as if they were common criminals. It is simply incredible that Nigerians can be treated like this under a democratic dispensation,” it said.

APC also said a pregnant woman among those who were arrested was denied access to her drugs even when she started bleeding due to the torture to which she was subjected by the DSS. The party said having coerced, tortured and bullied them to say and write what suits the purpose of the DSS, the agency now gleefully issued a statement saying what it has found during its investigations, in the wake of the illegal raid on the APC Data Centre, will shock the world.

temitemi1:
But they confessed to the crime...

temitemi1:
But they confessed to the crime...

temitemi1:
But they confessed to the crime...