My Health Is Deteriorating – Nigerian Journalist, Lahbash Laments After Spending 100 Days In Detention

Comrade Bashiru Adewale Olamilekan Hammed, the CEO and publisher of eaglesforesight.com.ng has cried out for help over his deteriorating health condition after spending 100 days in illegal detention.

He has now entered its 100th day at the Maximum Correctional Centre, Ibara Abeokuta, as he struggles to vary his stringent bail conditions.

Mr Bashiru Hammed Adewale Olamilekan, the journalist detained by the lawless Department of State Services (DSS), the Ogun State Command, has cried out for help over his deteriorating health condition after spending 100 days in illegal detention.

Several media outlets and reporters both local, national and international had reported that, Comrade Bashiru Hammed was accused of publishing an alleged story exposing the criminal activities of Governor Dapo Abiodun and his involvement in the credit card fraud in Miami-Dade Florida, the United States of America.

The Publisher of eaglesforesight.com.ng was rearrested and detained in May 2022 following an invitation for questioning by the service on the order of the Governor, despite being forced to pull down the story from his website.

Lahbash said, he was languishing in detention and his health was deteriorating as he was in dire need of medical attention.

“Since his arrest, he has reportedly been subjected to torture, degrading and inhuman treatments by the operatives of the service. He has also been denied access to his family and medical care,” a source closer to the journalist disclosed this to newsmen on Saturday.

Several media outlets and reporters had also on July 19 reported that the journalist, Bashiru Adewale Hammed Olamilekan, was forced by the DSS to delete the publication from his website.

Lahbash was said to have been first arrested on April 29, few days after the publication, and released on bail. He was rearrested on May 13, 2022, and has been in detention ever since.

The Eaglesforesight publisher was arraigned to court on 23rd of May and was detained at Ibara Correctional Center in Abeokuta till now.

Hammed had said, “The first charge they brought against me was that I quoted the PDP in the story on how he was arrested in the USA on money laundering charges. They forced me to pull it down, but despite pulling it down, they are still using it against me.

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“The DSS arrested me at about 9:40am on April 29th. I was coming out of Conference Hotel, Abeokuta, when I saw their Hilux. I recognised them but they handcuffed me immediately, masked me and took me away.

“I did not see anything until 6pm when they started interrogating me. From morning till 6pm, I was in handcuffs and a mask. During the interrogation, they asked who sponsored the story and I told them no one paid me to conjecture the story.

“They told me to bail myself and provide a surety. I did, and was released at night after paying the sum of one hundred naira (N100,000) sometimes around 9:20pm.”

The SSS had secretly held him for days before he was arraigned at the Federal High Court, Oke-Mosan Abeokuta, where he was remanded in prison custody after being granted bail under stringent conditions.

In the bail ruling, Mr Hammed was ordered to provide N3 million with two sureties (N1 million each). One of the sureties must be a civil servant on Grade Level 15 in the federal, state or local government area within the Abeokuta metropolis and the other an owner of an established business within Abeokuta, and the two sureties must be owners of properties in the area.

During the questioning by SSS, he was forced to pull down his story, according to his lawyer, Festus Ogun, who added that the journalist had been subjected to continuous harassment, torture, abuse and intimidation.

Civil societies, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), have condemned Mr Hammed’s arrest.

The Journalist, Lahbash is at the moment on pleading bargain as a way to as soon as possible to regain his freedom in other to care for his critical health conditions.