IYC demands justice for youth activist detained by DSS for two years

The Ijaw Youths Council, IYC, Worldwide, has called on the Director-General of the Department of State Services, DSS, and the Inspector General of Police to investigate and discipline officers involved in the arrest and detention of a youth activist, Mr Collins Opumie, for over two years without trial.

In a statement, signed and sent to DAILY POST on Monday, the national spokesman for the umbrella body, Comrade Ebilade Ekerefe, alleged that Opumie was abducted in a Gestapo manner from his base in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, and detained in underground facilities shortly after his company was shortlisted among the top three bidding firms for a contract to supply three million litres of diesel monthly by the Nigeria Agip Oil Company in 2016.

Ekerefe also said the IYC would petition the AGIP headquarters in Milan, Italy, over the alleged involvement of some of the staff of the company in the unlawful arrest and detention of the victim.

He said the travails of Opumie, a native of the Opuama Community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, started in February 2016 when his bid for a contract was listed among the top three in a monthly supply of three million litres of Automative Gas Oil, AGO, or diesel by a former General-Manager, Nigeria Agip Oil Company, Mr Marco Rotondi, a decision which reportedly did not go down well with some Agip staff.

He alleged that shortly afterwards, Opumie had a phone conversation with the head of security of the company, after which he was abducted by some armed men said to be DSS operatives from the Federal Medical Centre in August 2016.

“He was falsely accused of planning to attack oil pipelines and Agip facilities in Southern Ijaw, and thereafter taken to the Yenagoa cemetery with threats to kill him and bury him in an unidentified grave if he fails to agree to their claim that he sent the company a text threatening to carry out the act,” he stated.