In an unprecedented move, the Department of State Services, DSS, has written one August #Endbadgovernance protester, Khalid Aminu, demanding a retraction of his recent claim that he was brutalised, while in the custody of the security agency.

Aminu, an engineer by profession, was among several persons arrested in Kano and other parts of the North during the August #EndBadGovernance protests.

After his release, Aminu featured on a Channels Television programme where he alleged that DSS officers tortured him while in their custody.

“What I went through, what we went through was inhuman, I can’t even begin to tell you everything,” Aminu said.

“On the 3rd (of August), they arrested us at NEPA Roundabout. There and then they started beating us, boots, kicks, and all that. Then they pushed all of us into their Hilux, some into their SUVs, and then we went down to the Command.

“When we got there, the first thing I received was a strong cane, like an armoured cable that they used. If I pull up my chest, you will see. They started beating me, I was flat down and they were blasting me with all forms of sticks, armoured cables, everything you can think of,” Aminu told the television station.

However, In a letter dated November 25, 2024, the DSS through their lawyer, Mohammed Sani Ndanusa, SAN, said Aminu deliberately made the allegations to tarnish the reputation of the security agency.

Titled “Re: Allegation of Torture By Department of State Security Officials While Undertaking Custody in Kaduna,” the lawyer said Aminu’s claims were not only a misrepresentation of the facts, “but a deliberate attempt to tarnish the image of the Department of State Security Services, as well as reducing our client’s hard- earned name within their professional realm.”

The lawyer further told Aminu, “You will agree with us that your above representation have caused our client a lot of embarrassment both within and outside Nigeria,” and advised him to “make a retraction and cause same to be published in three widely read newspapers, failure to which we shall be compelled… to initiate legal proceedings against you.”

Aminu’s torture claim appeared to conflict with those of other protesters who claimed to have been detained alongside him in the same DSS facility in Kaduna. In a recent interview, the protesters told newsmen in Kaduna that they were not tortured while in DSS custody.

vanguard with additional report from People’s Security Monitor