Olamilekan Hammed, a Nigerian blogger and publisher for EaglesForeSight has been arraigned, on Tuesday, July 19, before a judge at the Federal High Court, Abeokuta, Ogun State, over a report on Dapo Abiodun, the governor of the state.
The State Security Service (SSS), Ogun State is accusing Hammed of defamation of character and cybercrime, citing a publication made by the blogger on April 23, 2022.
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The publication was titled, “2023; I Was Arrested (convicted) for Fraud in US, But APC Lacks Power to Disqualify Me — Governor Abiodun Bragged.”
According to Sahara Reporters, Hammed was forced by the DSS to delete the publication from his website.
Hammed was said to have been first arrested on April 29, six days after the publication, and released on bail. He was rearrested on May 13, 2022, and has been in detention ever since.
It was learnt that Hammed was accused of collecting money from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a major opposition party in the state, and taken by the SSS to Ibara Correctional Facility on April 29.
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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.
The DSS arrested me at about 9:40am on April 29.
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.
The statement reads further;
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, sometime around 9:20pm.
According to the report, Hammed went home that night and things seemingly went back to normal.
However, a week after, he made a WhatsApp post on his experience with the secret service, not knowing they had succeeded in infiltrating his phone and had been monitoring.
They arrested him again.
Someone who saw the status revealed it was along the lines of;
My ordeal in the hands of government last week: I met myself in the lions’ den. I was silenced, but maybe one day I will be able to say my mind out.
After the second invitation, Hammed was handcuffed and detained, before he was later arraigned before a judge at the Federal High Court, Abeokuta, where he is to appear on Tuesday.
