19th July, 2015
Ayorinde Oluokun/Abuja
In what seemed a continuation of the crackdown on officials of the immediate past administration by Nigeria’s secret police, the State Security Service, reports indicate that Gordon Obua who served as the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the former President has been arrested.
Obua, according to reports was arrested on Thursday afternoon when he went to honour an invitation by the SSS allegedly over the ongoing investigations of the over N4 trillion budgeted for defence in the five years by Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
There are also reports that the former CSO to the President is also being investigated over allegations of involvement in oil bunkering. He is reportedly being detained at the Abuja headquarters of the SSS.
An online news platform, The Cable reports that the former CSO who served the former President for five years has embarked on an hunger strike on Saturday afternoon to protest his detention and denial of access to his lawyers and family by the secret police.
In a statement released in Abuja on Saturday, a non-governmental organization, the Society for Global Justice has called on the SSS to release the former CSO who is also a serving SSS official.
The group in a statement issued by its Executive Director, Mr Marcus Ogabe confirmed that Obua was detained at the SSS headquarters in Abuja since Thursday.
The group said the continued detention of Obua is indicative of what it described as 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.