DSS Arrested Me As NLC Chairman – Oshiomhole

Senator Adams Oshiomhole, a former governor of Edo State and representative for Edo North discussed his experiences with the Department of State Services (DSS) as the former chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress.

In response to the recent attack on NLC President Joe Ajaero, Oshiomhole disclosed in an interview on Channels Television that, while serving as NLC President from 1999 to 2007, he too had been attacked by agents of the Department of State Services (DSS).

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.”

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According to Oshiomhole, the ultimatum was issued in response to our opposition to any attempt to remove the fuel subsidy because we were concerned about the ensuing rise in living expenses. Oshiomhole said that he was “taken away” for two days before ending up in custody.

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.”