Published 27th Sep, 2023

By Opeyemi Lawal

On Tuesday, the Edo State command of the Department of State Services (DSS) assaulted Douglas Ogbankwa Esq., a Benin-based legal practitioner.

The agency’s officials assaulted the lawyer after he insisted that they should not interview one of his clients in his absence.

Ogbankwa told FIJ that his client had been invited by the DSS over an alleged criminal investigation on Tuesday afternoon.

In honouring the invitation, the lawyer said he decided to accompany his client to the agency’s office in Benin.

Trouble started when the agency’s officials demanded to speak with his client in his absence.

“My client was invited by the deputy director of the DSS in Edo State on Sunday, but I had a conversation with the deputy director and we rescheduled for yesterday (Tuesday),” Ogbankwa told FIJ.

“When we got there, I filled in my name on the visitor’s book because as a lawyer, I understand that it is the name on the visitor’s list that will be called.

“However, a few minutes after we had been waiting, a female officer just came to call my client, and I politely told her and the front desk officer that my client would not go in alone because he had been invited for an alleged criminal investigation and by the administration of the criminal justice act (ACJA), I needed to be present.

“The officer left after hearing this, but then another female officer summoned my client and asked him to follow her.

“Again, I politely told her that I had raised this with the first officer who came to call my client and that she should kindly tell the person summoning him of the position that his lawyer wanted to be present in his interrogation.”

ASSAULT FOR SUMMONS

Ogbankwa said the command’s principal staff officer (PSO), operations and intelligence, then came out and also ordered his client to follow him.

“The PSO also tried to order my client in. As he did, I tried to explain to him that I would be going in with my client, but he ordered me back,” Ogbankwa told FIJ.

“I then told him that I am not a kindergarten pupil to be ordered around or be shouted on. To this, he told me we were in his office and he could do anything he liked. He said if we were not comfortable, we could leave.

“Just as we made to leave, the PSO ordered some officers to lock the gate. He then turned to me and said I was under arrest. He did not tell me the crime I had committed. All he told me was that he had been observing me since, and that his boys should deal with me.”

‘PRESIDENT’s BOYS’

The lawyer said he was then flanked and physically assaulted by two officers. After this, he was taken to the reception and beaten the second time.

“The men kicked me until I landed on the floor. I received about seven slaps and blows from them,” said Ogbankwa.

“At this point, I wriggled my way up and told the PSO that he was no longer acting in his capacity as a DSS officer. I also told him that he was only handling a personal business and not being professional.

“I asked him if he could defend what he was doing. At this point, he asked the officials to stop beating me. When the beating stopped, he asked me to leave. I then told him to stop addressing me rudely.

“He insisted I left and as I was driving out of their premises. While at the gate, I slowed down, looked at them and was going to say something.

“One of them who was holding a gun pointed it at me and said if I ever returned their office, they would gun me down. He said they would kill me and nothing would happen.

“When I told him the president would hear of what they had just done, he said they were the president’s boys and that nothing would happen.”

Ogbankwa said he then went to the Edo State Police Command to formally notify the commissioner of police about the threat that had just been made on his life.

FIJ made several phone calls to Peter Afunaya, the public relations officer of the DSS, for comments on the matter, but they were not answered.

When FIJ sent him a text message inquiring about the alleged assault on Douglas and why suspects were denied having their lawyers with them during interrogations, he said the DSS would investigate if the victim reports to them.

“We will investigate when and if formally reported to us,” Afunaya said.

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