Monday 12th August 2013 is a day Mr. Jonathan Ekpoma will not forget easily. That morning he left his residence at Ibusa delta state going to his place of work at Enugu, that was where His woes began.
He was grabbed by some men of the State Security Service Asaba, Delta State(SSS), they presented their I.D cards’ handcuffed him and dragged him into their vehicle. When asked his offence, he was battered with the butt of a gun, and asked to keep quiet, He further demanded to contact His family and the SSS officers answered Him “you have been kidnapped by the SSS, you cannot contact anybody until our investigation is finished, you cannot tell the SSS how they operate”. When they finally got to their office, his phones were switched off. He was told he threatened one James Eboka over the phone, a former colleague of his at UBA, he admitted calling the man due to some issues they had, but not using any threat words. He wrote His statement which they rejected. The SSS operatives tortured him, using some electrical appliances to shock him, flogging him consistently and using various torture techniques on Him, especially those that will not put visible marks on his body, they did not even care if he had any health conditions. To avoid further shock and torture He wrote what they demanded for in His statement. He was under their custody from Monday 12th – 21st Aug 2013, before he was charged to court.

The issue was not also easy for his wife Mrs. Ekpoma who is a nursing mother of a 4 months old baby girl and his aged mother. Her husband left for work that faithful day and she lost communication with Him. She prepared for the worse, went round all hospitals, checked manifests of transporters, waiting for calls from kidnappers, went to different police stations, she made a formal report at one of the stations, after a week of His disappearance she went on air (Delta Broadcasting Service) to announce that her husband was missing, the announcement paid off as someone called, to give her information that he was with the SSS. She went to their office to inquire, and they denied having him in custody, that same day a lawyer and some members of the family also went to inquire at the SSS office, they also denied having him in custody. A formal report of a missing person was then written and filed by the SSS and they promised to look for him at their capacity. She was suddenly contacted 21st Aug 2013 that her husband has been taken to court by the same SSS who denied having him in custody.


after his arrest: Mr Jonathan
We all have to fight and address the way security operatives keep oppressing the Nigerian people. In this era of security crisis,where kidnapping, ritual killing and other disturbing things are rampant, a family man was kidnapped and kept unlawfully because he called someone by SSS officers over a week, even Boka Haram suspects are given access to their families, doctor and lawyers. The issue of battering and forcing suspects to write statements under duress has to stop. The Era of having a friend in any of the security outfits, and using them to carryout personal vendetta should be discouraged. To show they carried out a biased investigation the complainant was not in court.

That week, the Ekpoma family faced trauma, so many families are going through this, He came across so many people under SSS custody that their families don’t know their where about, some have been there for months, if they die there, they erase any trace of the person to them, because nobody even know they are there in the first place.

Is this how they protect Nigerians?

I urge Nigerians to petition the SSS for their missing persons.

Kidnapped By Nigerian SSS, If u have a missing person petition the SSS First. www.naijahomenewz.com/2013/08/kidnapped.html?m=1