How I Was Arrested By DSS For Criticising Sani Abacha Same Day I Completed My National Youth Service –Sowore
In an interview on ‘Mic On For The Independent Mind Podcast’ with Seun Okinbaloye, Sowore revealed that he was arrested and detained for five days after completing his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Yola, Adamawa State.
Mr Omoyele Sowore, a former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), has recounted how he was rescued from the clutches of the Department of State Services (DSS) in 1996.
In an interview on ‘Mic On For The Independent Mind Podcast’ with Seun Okinbaloye, Sowore revealed that he was arrested and detained for five days after completing his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Yola, Adamawa State.
His offence was criticising the regime of former military dictator, Sani Abacha.
Sowore credited a report by The PUNCH newspapers, Northern edition, written by Stanley Yakubu, for his release.
He stated that without the report, he would have been “disappeared” by the secret service for speaking out against the Abacha regime.
He said, “If you know a little bit about my history you know that when I was living in university my tenure on campus was extended by two years just because I was fighting for democracy.
“When I finished eventually – after two years of extension – I started in 1989, I didn’t finish school until 1995. I went to NYSC in Yola Adamawa State. The day I finished my NYSC, the DSS came and arrested me and said they needed to talk to me.
“They detained for a week it was a publication by PUNCH newspaper written by a guy named Stanley Yakubu for their Northern edition that got me saved.
“Otherwise, nobody even knew. Everybody had left; they thought maybe I left like other persons.
“Till today, I was never given my NYSC certificate,” he said, adding, “Never, because I said I was against the Abacha regime that was between 1995 and 1996. So, my life has been like that and when this happened, I said to myself – ‘here comes another challenge.’”
He explained that he had factored all the things happening to him into his life the day he chose to be different.
He said, “What I should say is that for the first time in five years, I was with my family. Yes, I was with my kids for Father’s Day so it made me feel completely restored as a father but you know these are not things that started yesterday.
“Some of these problems that I’ve confronted and faced in the last five years or even more are things that I have factored into my life from the day I decided to be different, the day I decided that I will not be part of the people who are short-changing Nigerian people, that I will fight against oppression and high-handedness and corruption in society. So it’s not something that I started today.”
He maintained that if people don’t struggle, they cannot get the freedom they desire.
“So it is great to be back with the family but It is not itself the only thing I want to achieve. I’m glad and I’m grateful to my wife in particular for being the father and mother and everything in the house while I was absent. But there are a lot of kids out there, that need to have basic education, that need to have basic health care and to live a life that is fulfilling and a life that is worth it, and kids who will want to leave their mother’s womb safely.
“I have lived through the most challenging times in Nigeria for the past five years.”
He said, unfortunately, “there are others that need to be assisted and need to be given a life”.
“So, whereas it is great and fantastic to be united with my family, the struggle to liberate our country, Nigeria, is a struggle that will continue regardless of my motivation.
“I don’t even know sometimes what is motivating me. I don’t have it,” he said.
