BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – An Ikeja High Court presided over by Justice Hakeem Oshodi on Friday viewed a 10 minutes video recording that showed how some kidnappers ambushed, abducted, murdered and buried seven operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), detailed to monitor and arrest them in 2015.
The traumatizing video recording and pictures of the capture and interrogation of the suspected criminals after raiding their hideouts by security agents was played at the court.
The pictures also showed the grave sites where the victims that were brutally killed were buried.
Standing trial before Justice Hakeem over the alleged brutal murder of the seven DSS operatives are two Clement Ododomu (25) and Tiwei Monday (26).
The two accused are facing an eight-count charge of murder and possession of firearms contrary to Section 223 and 298 (3) of the Criminal Law, Cap. C. A Vol. 3, laws of Lagos State 2015.
One of the defendants (Monday), who was identified in the video, confessed saying; “We killed the seven officers. We shot them one after the other and buried them inside three graves in the Barracks.
He continued; “Our commander’s name is Owusi.”
A compact disc containing the video recording and the death certificate of the victims were tendered as exhibits before the court. Addressing the court on the content of the video recording, an investigation officer with the DSS, Saheed Adetunji said that seven out of a team of nine officers were sent on a kidnap rescue mission but were ambushed by dare devil criminals, who took them captive at Abule Oba.
According to Adetunji; “The seven captured operatives were murdered and buried in three shallow graves. Three men were put in one grave while the remaining four were buried in pairs.”
He also said that the burnt body amours (bulletproof vests), shoes, fez caps belonging to the victims, and a Prado jeep, were recovered inside a creek known as Barracks, where the criminals used as their camping ground.
Led in evidence by the Lagos State prosecutor, Y. G Osuala, Adetunji said; “I know the two defendants in the murder of seven DSS operatives namely: Uzor Nwafor, Kayode Oladimeji, Luke Akande, Adebayo Adeniyi, Benjamin Mafo and Simeon Owalabi. I can’t remember the name of the last officer. “The incident occurred on September 14, 2015 when the Lagos State Command of the DSS received a distress report from one Mr. Nwosu from the Sun Newspaper about the kidnap of his wife at their residence.
“The Lagos State Command immediately dispatched a nine-man team to carry out a surveillance operation to ascertain the location of the kidnappers that were negotiating for a ransom.
“However, in the evening at about 6 O’clock, one of the team members, Mr. Martins Ajayi, sent a distress text message to the station saying, ‘we have been ambushed by vandals and our weapons have been seized.
“When Mr Ajayi returned to the command, he told us that they were conducting surveillance on some areas at Abule Oba, where the calls of the purported kidnappings emanated from, when about a 100 armed men with AK47 and pump action guns ambushed them.
“Ajayi said that the vandals collected their weapons and that he was able to escape by jumping into a pit and hid himself. It was inside the pit that he sent the distress message.
“But at that time, Ajayi wasn’t aware that another officer had also escaped while the criminals dragged the other seven personnel though the creeks into the forest.”
“On October 10, 2015, there was a Joint Security Operation; a combination of the DSS, the police, the Army and the Nigerian Navy. This operation was launched on creeks at Igbo-Olomu, Abule-Oba to Arepo in Ogun State.
“The purpose of the operation was to clear the area, which was almost abandoned for militants and also for the purpose of arresting those behind the death of the personnel.
“The two defendants were later arrested and the command constituted an investigation team to investigate the matter and ascertain their level of involvement.
“And on October 28, the two defendants volunteered a statement under caution. The 1st defendant, in his statement, gave us his name as Clement Ododomu, a 25-year-old Ijaw man from Delta State. He stated his profession as a plumber.
“In relation to the offence, he said he was among the vandals that chased and ambushed the DSS personnel. He said that they collected their guns, beat them, used tear gas on their faces and pushed them into a speed boat.
“The first defendant said that they took the seven DSS personnel to their hideout, in the creeks, called Barracks. He also identified the 2nd defendant, Monday, as a member that used the tear gas on the personnel. He also identified one Godwin Oweli and Prince Sunday as other perpetrators.”
The matter was accordingly adjourned to November 6, 2019 for the continuation of trial.
