By Amos Okioma
Jones Abiri, the Bayelsa publisher of Weekly Source, who was incarcerated by the Department of State Security Services for more than two years on Thursday returned to Bayelsa State amidst a rousing welcome by his colleagues.
Abiri, who was a law student of National Open University before his arrest, was whisked away in a commando style by the officials of DSS on July 21, 2016 from his office at Ekeki Yenagoa.
Narrating his ordeal in the hands of the DSS, Abiri, who thanked the Almighty God for giving him the grace to overcome all challenges, said that he was arrested in his office by 15.23pm.
He said, “Almost about 12 plain armed men breezed into my office with a search warrant that my office is under investigation.
“When I perused through the search warrant, I saw magistrate Lucky was the one that appendaged his signatory on it.”
Abiri said he allowed them but he told them that he was a journalist.
He narrated: “I’m a journalist and a newspaper publisher. I don’t know why you are here in my office. They started searching my office at the end of the day, they didn’t see anything and that was how they handcuffed me.
“They took my phones, my laptops. Other things that are not connected to my arrest were taken even bank information.
“They took me to the State Command and I gave my statement and after spending seven days in Yenagoa, they flew me to Abuja. I didn’t know where I was going. My eyes were blindfolded and that was the situation”.
He said that since then he was not given the grace and opportunity to see his wife and children, his friends even his lawyers he said were denied asses to him.
On his experience at the DSS cell, he said that he was in underground Cell; when the light goes off you don’t see the next person, adding that he was also denied medical facilities.
He said, “if not because of the voice of the media and civil society organizations, they wouldn’t have taken me to court.
“I was given one count charge at Magistrate Court Wuse Zone 2 that I sent threatening text message to AGIP and Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria demanding for money and I said I don’t know”.
Also, John Angese, the chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists, in his remarks, asked why it took DSS too long to produce Jones Abiri in court, adding that it was not acceptable.
He said, “By the time somebody spends much time in detention sometimes you would have spent the time you would have used to serve the sentence, who will pay the compensation? he asked.