Former Militant Branded A Niger Delta Avenger By DSS Sues FG For N100 Million Damages

Kile Selky Torughedi, a former Niger Delta militant leader who Nigeria’s secret police says is a member of the Niger Delta Avengers, has sued the federal government and the Department of State Security Services, DSS, for damages of N100 million.


Last Friday, the DSS, which serves as Nigeria’s secret police, accused Chief Torughedi, also known as Young Shall Grow, of being a member of the new militant group said he was arrested while planning to assassinate a serving military officer, M. B. Yahaya, in Kaduna.

The DSS claimed that the former militant is a close associate of embattled former Niger Delta warlord, Tompolo and that it arrested another alleged Avenger militant, Christian Oluba, alias Sensor, as he was plotting to blow up oil pipelines.

The Niger Delta Avengers refuted the DSS claims and said that Torughedi is one of the moles planted by the DSS in the troubled region to break the ranks of the militants. The group described him and Sensor, as “sleeper agents” of the DSS.

The Avengers claims that the arrest of the two by the DSS follows the refusal of the secret police to pay them for their services to the agency.

“The fact is that they are sleeper agents of the DSS sent after the Niger Delta Avengers. The boys [Young Shall Grow, Sensor] have the right to demand for their money from DSS. Why not pay them instead of arresting and labeling them as Niger Delta Avengers member?” the militant group asked in a set of tweets.

“If DSS is denying this, let them allow the suspects to speak to the press. We, Niger Delta Avengers, do not have any connection with these boys. We dare the DSS to allow the boys to tell the world their side of the story,” the group cais.

Torughedi is fighting back through his lawyers alleging a violation of human rights by DSS and denying any involvement with the Niger Delta Avengers.

A source familiar with the case told The Trent that armed agents of the DSS broke into the Calabar home of the former militant at about 12.30 am on Friday, June 17, 2016, swooped on him and his naked wife as they slept in their bedroom. Both of them were beaten up while naked and humiliated by that DSS in their homes, all for an offence that is “in the imagination of the security agents”.

In a motion filed before a federal high court Abuja, through his counsel, Emeka Uchegbulam and Co, the ex-militant, who is still in detention, is making claims of N100 milling only for “psychological, emotional trauma, humiliation, harassment, intimidation and unlawful detention”.

According to Mr. Emeka Uchegbulam, he [the lawyer] and the wife of Chief Turoghedi have made several attempts to see him in the DSS detention but on all occasions in which they visited the DSS detention facility, they were denied access to the former militant who is said to be “a strong force for keeping the peace in Bayelsa”.

Source: The Trent