"AS NLC PRESIDENT DSS ASSAULTED AND DETAINED ME FOR TWO DAYS"- ADAMS OSHIOMHOLE. (PHOTO).

"As NLC President DSS assaulted and detained me for two days" - Adams Oshiomhole

Adams Oshiomhole, senator representing Edo North and former Governor of Edo state has shared his experience with the Department of State Services as the chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress. 

Commenting on the recent assault of NLC President, Joe Ajaero, during an interview on Channels Television, Oshiomhole revealed that he was also assaulted by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) operatives during his tenure as NLC President between 1999 and 2007.

He said; 

“I had a similar experience… I was on my way to Delta State and I went to the airport. The then director of SSS ordered that I should be arrested and stopped from travelling because we had given an ultimatum to the then Federal Government headed by President Olusegun Obasanjo."

Oshiomhole said the ultimatum had to do with resisting the attempt to withdraw fuel subsidy because of our fears of the consequential increase in the cost of living. Oshiomhole revealed that he ended up in detention after being “taken away” for two days.

He added;

“They dragged me on the tarmac and I had my cuts all over the place. They forcefully prevented me from flying and took me back to the DSS director general’s office — then Col. [Kayode] Are. 

“He offered to take me to their own hospital and I said, ‘No, I can’t even trust a government that has inflicted this kind of wound on me to treat me. They might as well poison my blood.’ I said I wasn’t going to do that.

“[For] at least 48 hours, the NLC couldn’t locate me. When eventually I was let out, the bandage on my arm with the blood and all that, I told my colleagues, ‘This blood would rather reinforce and whet my appetite for the struggle for justice.”