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| Selky Torughedi aka, The Young Shall Grow. |
Selky Torughedi who had languished in the underground cell of the DSS for over one year as a result of some trumped-up charges of being a member of the Niger Delta Avenger among others, was allowed to go home as a freemen without any conditions attached last week after the security lords had satisfied themselves that Selky had nothing to offer them.
Speaking after his release, the Bayelsa-born ex militia thanked his teeming supporters, family members and other well meaning Nigerians who stood by him throughout his incarceration even as he insisted that he was innocent of the all allegations that made the DSS to lock him away from over one year without good food, medical care and not being charged to court for once.
“I want Nigerians to know as a matter of fact that I am a private business man and I have never been involved in any form of criminality, says Selky “I was never a member of the Niger Delta Avenger and will never be one. Those who wanted me to be out of circulation did their assignment very well “
The renowned grassroots philanthropists said he has forgiven everybody that played one role or the other to get him incarcerated even as he thanked God for seeing him through the travails and coming out alive.
While promising to continue to be a law-abiding citizen in spite of all he was made to pass through, he said this will not deter him from doing the good work he had been known for especially being of assistance to his community and fighting for the down-trodden of the Niger Delta including the unity of Nigerian nation.
It would be recalled that Selky Torughedi was arrested in June Last year in his residence in Calabar at the dead of the night by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS).
He was handcuffed, bundled into a waiting rickety vehicle almost half nude and driven to Abuja where he was holed up in the dingy cell of the DSS. -He was accused of being a member and indeed a financier of the dreaded Niger Delta Avengers. They said he was planning to blow up pipelines, thereby causing economic sabotage and that he was also plotting to kill an Army colonel.
For these reasons, Selky, the DSS concluded, was not fit to walk the streets of Nigeria as a free citizen. But they (DSS) refused to charge him to court rather, they chained him hands and legs even inside the cell, denied him access to his lawyer and family members while his health continued to wane by the day.
After several months of incarceration with very dim hope of the DSS doing what was constitutionally needful, (taking him to court for prosecution), his Counsel, Barrister Emeka Ochegbulam of Univoice Chambers approached the court for enforcement of Selky’s fundamentally human rights as enshrined in the United Nations charter of freedom to fair trial an hearing, especially as Nigeria is a signatory to the charter.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Nnmadi Dimgba of the Federal High Court Abuja, the court ordered the immediate release of Selky Torughedi against the backdrop of the inability of the DSS to provide any iota of evidence to justify why the poor young man has to remain in their cell.
Notwithstanding the court’s ruling, the DSS were headstrong, they flagrantly disobeyed the court order and remained recalcitrant until just last week when they thought they have had a fill of Selky’s stay with them and the cage was opened for the bird to seek its natural habitat.
