Alleged assault on DSS officers: Court remands 3 Lagos Assembly workers

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, ordered that the three workers of the Lagos State House of Assembly be remanded in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, for an alleged assault on its officers.

Recall that the DSS, last Friday, arrested three Assembly staff for interrogation over the incident that happened penultimate Monday, when DSS stormed the House claimed to be based on invitation.

The trial judge, Justice Daniel Osiagor, directed the remand of Ibrahim Olanrewaju, Adetu Adekunle and Fatimoh Adetola after DSS counsel, Mr Michael Bajela, approached the court for arraignment of the defendants.

The judge, however, said he wanted to go through the case file. They are to be in DSS custody, pending their arraignment tomorrow.

In the charge, dated February 24, 2025, and filed yesterday, DSS accused the defendants, with others still at large, of conspiring to assault its officers while they were performing their official duties, without any reasonable excuse.

DSS alleged that on February 17, 2025, at the Lagos State House of Assembly, the three defendants aided and abetted by obstructing the officers of the service while performing their official duty without any reasonable cause.

They were also accused of cyberstalking among themselves by recording and sending false information to social media circulating the same to the whole country to cause a breakdown of law and order among the people without any justification.

DSS said Ibrahim Olanrewaju, Adetu Adekunle and Fatimoh Adetola, conspired among themselves to commit a felony by willful misdirection of electronic messages to social media to embarrass the service and its officials.

The DSS further accused Olanrewaju and Adekunle of using an iPhone 12 Promax to record false information and sending the same to social media for circulation to cause embarrassment to the service, to cause the breakdown of law and order to the public.

DSS said Adetu Adekunle, on or about February 17, 2025, at Lagos State House of Assembly used his Techno POP 8 to record false information and sent the same to social media for circulation to cause embarrassment to the service to cause the breakdown of law and order to the public.

The offences allegedly committed contravened section 516 of the Criminal Code Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, as well as sections 27(1)(b), 24(1)(b), 24(c)(i), and 11 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015 (as amended), 2024.

PASAN protests, condemns arrest of members

Reacting to the arrest, members of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria, PASAN, yesterday, faulted the arrest just as they called for the release of their members.

Chairman of PASAN in Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Ogunlana, who addressed other members of the Assembly and the media at Alausa, Ikeja, condemned the detention and trial of the three staff members.

Ogunlana said: “On February 17, our staff members, the Sergeant at Arms department and a public affairs officer, who prevented the DSS operatives from entering the chambers with their firearms were picked up last Friday on their way from work. The two of them, Adetu Adekunle and Adetola Oluwatosin, were intercepted around the 7up area of Lagos and were allegedly whisked away by the DSS operatives.

“On Saturday, a member of staff, Mr Ibrahim Adullakeem was arrested in his home and taken to custody. They were detained on Friday and were released in the late night of Saturday. Only to rearrested them on Monday and charged them to court. They were detained in the DSS custody and taken to court on Tuesday morning.

We condemn the humiliating arrest, detention and trial of the officers as an abuse of power and gross violation of the rights of the staffers who were performing their statutory duties.

“As a union, we call for the immediate release of the detained staff members and call on the authorities to institute a thorough Investigation into their arrest, torture, and continued detention to forestall recurrence.”

Speaker has been briefed— Ogundipe

Meanwhile, Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Strategy and Security, Mr Stephen Ogundipe, commended the union for patience while conducting themselves in an orderly manner.

Ogundipe said: “We are all together in this struggle and we know that whatever happens to the staff is because we want to protect us here and we have related the message to Madam Speaker.

We were shocked when the union chairman alerted us that three members had been arrested and still in detention.

“We have made efforts to speak with the staff members at the DSS office, and we have also called on our leaders at the national level to inform them of what is going on in Lagos State House of Assembly.

“I can assure you that this will be the end. If our national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has sent delegates from Abuja to intervene, I can assure you that this would be the end.

“We should not take laws into our hands. We should civilly conduct ourselves and we will not relent until those people are released.”