Father Shares Story Of How DSS Arrested His 16-Year-Old Son For Discussing Planned Protest On Phone

The father of Adeoluwa Igaga, a 16-year-old who was detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) for his involvement in discussions about the #EndBadGovernance protest, has expressed deep concern over his son's arrest.

In an interview with SaharaReporters, Mike Igaga recounted the events leading to his son's arrest, revealing that Adeoluwa had called him to discuss a planned protest at his school, the University of Ibadan.

Unbeknownst to them, their conversation was intercepted by the DSS, who then traced and arrested the minor. Mike Igaga lamented the unjust detention of his son, emphasising that their discussion was a harmless father-son conversation.

“I told my son on the phone that they could draw the attention of the Federal Government to the water issue in their school instead of just protesting on campus, especially as the same situation happened at the University of Benin,” he said.

“I told him that if they were more mature, they could agitate for the University of Ibadan water programme. The boy is just 16 years old and is a minor. The DSS tapped our conversation and got him arrested through the Chief Security Officer of the University of Ibadan.”

It was gathered that immediately it was established that the student was a member of the University of Ibadan, the DSS reached out to the Chief Security Officer of the school, asking that he should invite Adeoluwa.

“They did not tell Adeoluwa his offence at the office of the CSO. He was only told that the DSS needed to see him and that was how they detained him,” Mike Igaga said.

SaharaReporters previously reported that Adeoluwa Igaga, a first-year Computer Science student, was arrested and handed over to the secret police by the University of Ibadan's security unit.

Notably, Adeoluwa is the son of Comrade Mike Igaga, former speaker of the UI Students' Union and cousin of the late NANS President Moses Oisakede. According to sources, the DSS had been monitoring the telephone conversations between Adeoluwa and his father during the recent UI electricity protest, where they discussed the planned national protest against hunger.

“The Abuja DSS sent the phone call they spied to Ibadan DSS to arrest the boy. Can you imagine that in a democracy?

"The part one student was then picked up by the school's CSO and handed over to the DSS," a source told SaharaReporters.

"DSS is about to release the boy, but he's now writing statement at the UI security unit. DSS told him to come back on Monday," another source said.

It would also be recalled that during the week the DSS picked up youths in Kaduna and Sokoto states over the nationwide protest.