The information reaching our new desk according to The Trent is that Mr. Gordon Obua, former Chief
Security Officer to President Goodluck Jonathan has
passed away a few hours ago, July 20, 2015 in the
custody of Department of Security Services (DSS) in
its Abuja Headquarters where he had been detained
since Thursday, July 16, 2015 on the orders of
President Muhammadu Buhari.

Sources who have been monitoring the situation
have confirmed Obua’s passing to The Trent. He was arrested on Thursday when he honoured an
invitation by the DSS and had been in solitary
confinement until his death.

Obua, who was being detained by the DSS in an
underground dungeon for undisclosed reasons was
being denied access to his lawyers, family, and his
doctors on the orders of the new Director General of the DSS, Lawal Daura. The DSS (also called SSS)
serves as Nigeria’s secret police.

President Buhari appointed Lawal Daura, his kinsman from his hometown in Katsina on July 2, as head of the DSS after firing Ita Ekpeyong. Daura was recalled from retirement as he had retired from the service of the DSS when he reached the mandatory age of 60 according to the Civil Service rules of Nigeria. Our sources say Obua’s remains are still in the custody of the DSS at the time of filing this report.

He was held without charges filed against him.
On July 18, 2015, Onochie Onwuegbuna, the lead
partner at Zeran Legal, has issued a press statement on behalf of Obua’s family complaining about the conditions in which his client was being detained and said that his client was being witch-hunted by the Buhari government. He said his client was diabetic and hypertensive and was being denied his drugs as well as food and water by the DSS

Mr. Gordon Obua is pictured with his wife, Dr. (Mrs)
Merit Obua at the birthday thanksgiving reception for their triplets (in their arms) recently. Until his death, was an employee of the DSS and his employer knew about his medical conditions but decided, in impunity, to deny him access to his medicines and doctor, his lawyer alleged.

Onwuegbuna said that the Buhari government had
‘marked’ his client, and other individuals who held
offices in Jonathan’s administration and the arrest of his client was a scheme, “in other to implicate them by all means for phantom crimes or offences”.

A non-governmental organisation, the Society for
Global Justice had issued a statement on Obua’s
continued detention at the DSS, on Saturday calling
for the release of the former Chief Security Officer.

Executive director of the group, Mr. Marcus Ogabe
confirmed that Obua was detained at the SSS
headquarters in Abuja since Thursday.

The group also said the continued detention of Obua is indicative of “the tyrannical, autocratic and
dictatorship tendency of the Muhammadu Buhari
administration”.

“Obua has been detained since last Thursday at the
headquarters of the State Security Services in Abuja
without charge.

“He was also not told the reason for which he is
being detained, the group said.

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