The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Benue state has raised the alarm of the detention of the party publicity secretary, Bemgba Iortyom by the Department of State Services.
Iortyom was invited by DSS on Monday and is yet to be released as of the time of filing this report on Tuesday.
The PDP scribe had been a thorn in the flesh of the ruling All Progressive Congress-led Catholic priest turned governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia since he assumed office on May, 29th.
The Vice Chairman of the party, Benue North East senatorial district, Azua Ashongo had in a statement announced the invitation of the party scribe by DSS for a chat with the director on Monday, and was thereafter detained.
According to him, “Earlier today, (October 16, 2023), the Department of State Services (DSS) invited the Benue State Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), for what was termed a chat with the State Director of the Service.
“Though the reason for the invitation was not stated, I, along with the Media Consultant of the party, C T Hwande and a representative of the State Legal Adviser, accompanied Mr Iortyom to honour the invitation.
“We arrived at the DSS headquarters in Makurdi at exactly 12:47 pm and were warmly received by one Danlami Imam, who we later discovered is in charge of the Political Desk of the Command.
“10 minutes after our arrival, Mr Imam returned to us and asked us to leave as the Director who demanded for the invitation of the PDP Spokesman was busy with other official engagements and would not be seeing us immediately. He said he would not want to make it look like Bemgba Iortyom was being detained by the Service.
“We left the DSS premises and barely 20 minutes after we arrived at the Party Secretariat, there was a call from the same Mr Imam requesting that we return to the command headquarters, indicating that the Director was now available and ready to meet with Mr Iortyom.
“Strange as this sounded, but as a law abiding citizen, Bemgba Iortyom drove back to the DSS headquarters, this time, the State Treasurer of the PDP, Philip Bem Gbe had joined us.
“As soon as we arrived, at about 2:11pm, two gentlemen walked up to us, claiming to be from the office of the Director and took Bemgba Iortyom away. All efforts by us to accompany him failed as we were told that only Bemgba Iortyom was invited by the Command.
“And up until 6:17pm when we were asked to leave the premises of the command this evening, the whereabouts of Mr Bemgba Iortyom were not known; neither were we told if he had been detained or not.
“And because we were not allowed access to him, one can not say, for sure, if his invitation was as a result of a petition written against him or a complaint from any quarter or better still, was in a friendly chat with the Commands Director.”
Ashongo further said, “And with the recent remarks by the incumbent Governor Hyacinth Alia, it is difficult not to link him with this sudden invitation of Mr Iortyom by the DSS and his imminent detention.
Meanwhile, the state governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia on Tuesday distanced himself from the arrest of the opposition party scribe. My
His media aide, Kula Tersoo in a terse message sent to journalists said, “We have no hands in that o. We only read on Facebook that he was invited by the DSS. But himself wrote again that the invitation was deactivated.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
