The only thing we know is that after two months, they released the one that they shot, and as for my elder brother, we don’t know whether he is still alive
By Moses Okorie
A family has cried out to the leadership of the Department of State Service, DSS, to please release their brother, Ngbede Muhammed Shaibu, who was not arrested since January 31, 2024 at his residence at Gwako village of Gwagwalada area council of Abuja, the nation’s capital, and until now has not been released or charged to court.
Speaking on behalf of the family, his younger brother who is also a gospel minister, Johnson Ankeli Shaibu, made the appeal while addressing newsmen in Abuja, calling on President Bola Tinubu and the new leadership of the DSS to look into his brother’s case and charge him to court or better still set him after spending about eight months in the custody without knowing what offence he committed.
Narrating his brother’s ordeal, Johnson said, he just got home one day and discovered that some masked people came with sophisticated guns in two hilux vans and SUV and started shooting sporadically and arrested his elder brother, Ngbede Muhammad Shaibu.
He revealed that his nephew, Friday Audu, the son of his elder sister was shot on the leg, but later released after two month, and that was how they got information that it was the DSS that stormed their area, and that they are the ones keeping the brother.
According to him, “DSS broke the door, opened fire and the boy was that was looking after my blind mother ran out in that confusion, they shot him in the leg and still arrested him and also arrested Ngbede Shaibu. From 31st of January until today, they have neither charged him to court, and we don’t known if he is alive.
“The only thing we know is that after two months, they released the one that they shot, and as for my elder brother, we don’t know whether he is still alive. And if he is alive, they should take him to court or better still release him”, the family pleaded.
On his part, a legal practitioner, Barrister Ifeanyichukwu Nweze said, the DSS should do the needful, because that is what the law said. He called on the DSS to have a self-evaluation and spot the bad eggs among them who are painting the agency in a bad light.
According to him, “Much as we appreciate their work as DSS, and as a government agency, they should not use it to oppress people. This people cried out to us and we know they don’t have anyone to help them, so we are calling on the president of Nigeria to come to their aid. Things are tough already.
“I was told that in that brouhaha, their mother had high blood pressure, and before they could start managing her in the midst of lack, she died. They have also brought the pictures of her burial. It is good for the establishment to know what is happening to its establishment.
“The DSS should look inward because it is a very important agency in the country, but with what we are seeing, DSS may have been infiltrated such that some people are doing self-service instead of state service”, Nweze said.
All efforts to get the response of the DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya, proved abortive as he could not reply to the text message sent to his phone.