 has issued a warning to engineer Khalid Aminu, a participant in the August #EndBadGovernance protests, demanding a retraction of his claims that he was tortured while in their custody.){kind=link}
The Department of State Services (DSS) has issued a warning to engineer Khalid Aminu, a participant in the August #EndBadGovernance protests, demanding a retraction of his claims that he was tortured while in their custody.
The security agency, through its legal counsel, has also threatened legal action if Aminu fails to comply.
Aminu, who was among several individuals arrested during the protests in Kano and other parts of Northern Nigeria, made the allegations during an appearance on a Channels Television programme.
Speaking about his experience, he recounted alleged abuse by DSS officers.
“What I went through, what we went through, was inhuman. On the 3rd of August, they arrested us at NEPA Roundabout, and immediately they began beating us—boots, kicks, everything,” Aminu said during the broadcast.
“At the command, they used armoured cables to beat me while I was lying flat. If I show you my chest, you’ll see the marks.”
In response, the DSS, through its lawyer Mohammed Sani Ndanusa (SAN), issued a letter dated November 25, 2024, describing Aminu’s allegations as false and defamatory. The letter, titled “Re: Allegation of Torture By Department of State Security Officials While Undertaking Custody in Kaduna,” stated that Aminu’s claims were a deliberate attempt to tarnish the image of the DSS.
The letter read: “Your allegations represent a gross misrepresentation of facts and a calculated attempt to damage the reputation of the Department of State Security Services. These claims have caused significant embarrassment to our client both within and outside Nigeria.”
The DSS has demanded that Aminu issue a retraction and publish it in three widely read newspapers. Failure to comply, the letter warned, would result in legal action.
Interestingly, Aminu’s claims conflict with the accounts of other protesters detained alongside him. In interviews with journalists in Kaduna, some of the detainees stated that they were not subjected to torture during their time in DSS custody.