Less than a month after ordering the release and compensation of an Abuja-based businesswoman, Mrs. Chineze Ozoadibe, the Director General (DG), State Security Services (DSS), Oluwatosin Adeola Ajayi, has ordered the release of one Kenneth Okechukwu Nwafor, arrested in July 2022, for his alleged involvement in the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).
Nwafor was also awarded N5 million as compensation for the wrongful arrest and free medicare by the DG.
A source stated that “The DG directed his investigation officers to conduct detailed review of all pending cases, and they have been dutifully doing that. Nwafor’s case is one of such cases.
“The gesture, one of the several by the DG, is a testament to his resolve to comply with the rule of law and adherence to the service standard operating procedure.
“Mr. Tosin Ajayi acknowledges that as humans, we sometimes make mistakes. He also believes that when such mistakes are made, the right thing is to make amends. That is why he has established a culture of accountability and humanly makes efforts to remedy the mistakes of the Agency.
“Remember, he paid N20 million as compensation to one Jos-based businessman who was erroneously shot on the leg in the course of a security operation in 2016. Even when the court awarded N10 million in damages against the DSS, the agency refused to pay until Ajayi became DG. He doubled the money.
“Nwafor isn’t the first Igbo to be released and compensated under similar circumstances. Some months ago, the DG ordered the release of three young men wrongfully detained for belonging to IPOB.”
The source further noted that “this has become the trend since the new DSS leadership.”