DSS operative kills admission seeker, suspect released after ‘order from above’

The family of a university admission seeker, Temitope Johnson, has accused the State Criminal Investigation Department of the Osun State Police Command of releasing an operative of the Department of State Services, Bamidele, who allegedly killed their son.

It was gathered that Bamidele and his colleagues stormed the Ayope area of Owode Ede, Osun State, on October 6, and shot sporadically after a resident called them to intervene in an affray.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the security operatives killed 21-year-old Temitope and arrested three of his friends. The friends were reportedly taken to the DSS office in Osogbo.

The deceased’s family was reportedly chased out of the DSS office when they visited to check on him without knowing he was dead.

His father, Segun, said when all efforts to see his son proved abortive, he wrote a petition to the police against the DSS.

He explained that upon the receipt of his petition, the police arrested Bamidele on November 26.

However, the 50-year-old father said the suspect was released the following day.

He said, “My son and his friend left Ife to rent an apartment at Owode-Ede and on October 6, they argued about N1,000 with an electrician that came to help them to repair something in their apartment. A policeman in their area settled the matter for them and the electrician was paid. Only for a DSS informant on the street known as Sunday to call some DSS officials that some people were fighting and when the officials came, they started shooting on the street and killed my son. They arrested three other persons and took my son’s corpse along with them.

“When I heard about the incident, I went to their office in Osogbo with my people to bail them, thinking that my son was still alive; but we were chased out and the lawyer that we engaged was also chased away twice by the DSS. So, I went to write a petition to the police against them.

“The police arrested Sunday who called the DSS and asked him to give them the number of the DSS official that he called and he gave them. The DSS official, Bamidele aka Aji, was arrested and I was called to come to the State CID. When I got there, Bamidele confessed that it was true they went to the area and killed my son, but he did not say where the corpse was.

“The police promised that they would carry out their investigation only for me to get there the next day and saw that Bamidele had been released. The police said the order came from above to release him. I and my wife have not been ourselves since this incident happened; to eat is a problem because we cannot see our son’s corpse. We want the police to help us re-arrest Bamidele and get our son’s corpse.”

The Osun State Commissioner of Police, Wale Olokode, said he was in a meeting and asked our correspondent to call back.

When the reporter called back, he referred her to the state Police Public Relations Officer, Yemisi Opalola.

However, Opalola said she had not been briefed on the matter and could not comment on it. (Adopted from The PUNCH)