For 26 days, an Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in  Osun State Prince Adebayo Adeleke aka BANIK was allegedly incarcerated by a security agency in both Osogbo and Abuja on the strength of a petition allegedly written by an official of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State. In this encounter with Gbenga Olarinoye, BANIK as he is fondly called told the story of what led to his detention. Excerpts:

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

What exactly led to your arrest and detention by the SSS?

I was formerly in the Peoples Democratic Party  (PDP) before I decamped to ACN this year as a result of lack of internal democracy and visionary leadership in PDP. This informed my decision to move to ACN and when I moved to AC N, it was so painful to the PDP chieftains in the area, because Iree before was predominantly PDP.

I did not make the decision alone, I left with some of the party leaders , which included the former Boripe council Chairman, Chief Adeniyi Aina, a first republic politician, Alhaji Ibraheem Ajagbe, a former PDP Boripe  chairman, Alhaji Adeoje, the immediate past Chairman Governing Council of the Osun State Polytechnic, Iree , Otunba Ponle Ebo among others. And Iree became an ACN community and you can even see that from the result of the just concluded election.

The state governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, came to Iree the day we decamped and it was so clear that the people of Iree have all turned to ACN. Since then, PDP chieftains were not comfortable again and were looking for my jugular, I went with all the PDP three wards youth leaders in Iree, two women leaders and many other people and since then they were looking for my downfall.

So, what has happened since then?
On April 3, a day after we had the aborted election, it was so painful that they cancelled that election, probably they (PDP) saw what was on ground, because it was ACN all over in Iree.

On that Sunday, I was billed to attend a meeting of ACN in Ward 10 Iree, I was inside the car of Otunba Ponle Ebo, a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, also an ACN chieftain, my car was behind, we were going to that meeting , as we drove down the slope that was about 100 meters away from my house, we saw a vehicle coming, an 18 passengers bus, that bus stopped us and about nine people who were  inside the bus came down holding cutlass, gun, iron rods and ordered everybody  inside our car to get down and I was almost moved down before the intervention of Otunba Ponle Ebo an experienced former police officer who cautioned me not to go down.

The incident attracted the people in my area who were shouting ha! Bubble, ha! Ijesha, they want to kill BANIK, they were known very well, and the bus was said to have come from Iree motor park and because of the crowd attention and the noise of the neighbours, they ran away but the driver of the bus was apprehended   by the police, and the driver of the bus confessed to the police that he did not know they were coming to attack me, and that somebody was in my area giving them information about my movement.

Immediately after the incident , I went to the police station in Iree to lodge a complaint and the officer  in charge told me to go to Iragbiji , the headquarter of Boripe  on Monday to write a statement. I went along side Chief Ponle Ebo, I wrote the statement and went to the nearby restaurant to eat, and that was where I met some guys in suit, I met them at the restaurant, I greeted them, later they came to me and said ‘are you BANIK ?’, I said yes ‘I am’, they said our boss will like to talk to you, I saw a car, and immediately I saw the car, I discovered that they stocked some guns inside the car, front and back, they said “we are SSS” and they showed me the identity cards and said “Oga will like to see you.”

Maybe they looked at the first two lines of my statement, and one man who I presumed  is the state Director of the SSS, said no this is not what I wanted, you are stupid, this is nonsense, he said where is the guy they said you cut his head with cutlass, I said cut his head ?, there must be a mix up somewhere, my name is Prince Bayo Adeleke, I am BANIK, he said yes, you cut that boy head!

I slept naked, they put me in a room, that room was at the left side when you leave the counter, in that room there were two mattresses; two dirty naked mattresses, they were not  covered, I slept  with one, and I covered my body with the second one because I was naked, when I wanted to ease myself they did not allow me to go out, they said the guy who has the key of the cell was not available, they gave me an empty  table water container to ease myself, when  I wanted to pray, there was no water for ablution, thank God for alternative means, Tayaman  ablution, I performed tayaman before I was able to pray.

The next morning around 5.30 am, they woke me up and took me to the counter, all my cloths and under wears were inside a nylon bag, they gave it to me, I was like where are we going to, if it is court, it is too early, I was thinking maybe they wanted to conduct a search in my house in Iree. Unfortunately, they said I should move, there was a car outside, and I heard them saying Oga must not meet you here, Oga said we should move, I was about entering the car and one of them called me back and asked the other one at the counter and requested for handcuff, he said “Oga instructed us to handcuff him,” so I was handcuffed from Osogbo to Abuja.

When we got to Abuja, it was a different ball game, I was really maltreated at Osogbo, but in Abuja I saw officers and men of the SSS who are responsible, you say good morning, they answered you politely, they took me to where they called ADMO, the man I met might be their Director of Administration, he said my own is to take care of you and ensure that you are okay and I was happy.

Later, I was taken to ADIS, who is the Assistant Director Security, and asked me what brought me there. And I answered that till now, I don’t know, because I have not done anything.

But the only point I made in SSS custody which I want you to also note, though I had been vindicated, but the case must be thoroughly investigated, we have to know who is that guy they said I cut his head, where I cut his head, when I cut his head, who are the people there when I cut his head. I am confident to say that since I was born, I have never handled a cutlass or shot a gun in my life, I am a prince from Iree, and we don’t preach violence.