Man Detained By DSS On Orders Of Ooni Of Ife Remains In Custody 10 Days After Illegal Arrest

Lawal Moshood, a tricycle rider in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, is still being illegally kept in the custody of the Department of State Services after he was arrested on the orders of Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II.

He was arrested in Ogun and moved to DSS facility in Osun State after the previous owner of the mobile phone he is using sent a text message to the Ooni of Ife through a different SIM card.

It was gathered that Moshood is a family man and his wife and daughter are currently depressed over the perpetual detention of their breadwinner.

Moshood has been denied access to a lawyer or his family members since he was picked up from Ijebu-Ode by the secret police, according to activist Olawale Bakare widely known as Mandate.

While clearing the air on the main reason Moshood was arrested, Mandate said, “The DSS arrested him on the claim that a SIM which impersonated @OoniAdimulaIfe has entered the phone before.

“The said SIM/message that impersonated @OoniAdimulaIfe is not found on the phone.

“The said message was not shown to him nor sent from his phone according to what he was told.

“They’re looking for a SIM not a phone, which was not in Lawal’s possession at the point of arrest.”

Confirming knowledge of the young man’s ordeal even though trying to distance himself from it, Oba Ogunwusi, through his Director of Media and Public Affairs, Comrade Moses Olafare, said that Moshood was arrested for impersonating the Ife monarch.

Already, some civil society groups and human rights campaigners have called for the immediate release of Moshood by the secret police.