The philistines are at it again! The season of arrest and intimidation of progressive voices in Nigeria has started! On Saturday, 8th of January, 2011, shortly before 10:00 P.M. Nigerian time, men of the State Security Service arrested Prof Okey Ndibe, a United States based Nigeria intellectual, teacher, writer, activist and political commentator who at the time was arriving the country on a Turkish airline along with his brother-in-law and the latter's three little kids.
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According to Prof Ndibe, he had originally planned to be in Nigeria for Christmas and was to come in via Ghana, but he had to delay his travel in order to come in with the brother in-law and help out because he was travelling with his kids. They arrived in Nigeria on a Turkish airline. He had the kids' passports which he handed over, along with his, when asked at the immigration desk. The officer that attended to him looked at the passports, passed the brother-in-law and asked if he was Okey Ndibe. He answered in the affirmative and the officer stood up and went to whisper something to another officer. He came back, handed the kids' passport to his brother-in-law, but held on to Prof Ndibe's Nigerian passport and then told him to go get his luggage and return to take his passport.
Prof Ndibe spent quite sometime waiting for the luggage and while still waiting he tried to approach the officer that took his passport to inform him he was still waiting at which time he was approached by a fellow who introduced himself as a State Security agent waiting for him to pick up his luggage, so they can proceed to see his supervisor upstairs. He gave a name, which was different from the name he wore on his badge. When Prof Ndibe questioned this, the officer said it was their practice, because of the nature of their job, not to wear their real names. Prof Ndibe got his luggage and the man took his passport and they proceeded to the office of the supervisor. The lift was not working, so he had to haul his luggage via the steps to an office upstairs, Room 1062, where he met the supervisor. The officer that brought him in then handed over his passport to the supervisor and left.
The supervisor began to check and enter something on the computer. After a while, he turned to Prof Ndibe and said partly as a statement and partly as a question that Prof Ndibe has another passport with him. Prof Ndibe said he has a United States of America passport with him. The officer demanded he hands this over to him and Prof Ndibe complied. The officer looked at this and went on to enter more things on the computer and wrote some things down on paper as well. At that point another young SSS officer came in with a Nigerian who seemed to have issues with a passport issued in 2004 which he said he never used. Prof Ndibe said he wasn't very clear what the whole issue was about, except that the chap was supposed to be flying to Belgrade at about that time, but the supervisor instructed the young SSS officer to tell the airline he was scheduled to fly with that the man was not travelling. The fellow was quite distraught and Prof Ndibe heard him trying to call a few people, including his dad.
A Statement By RNC On The Arrest And Proposed Interrogation Of Prof Okey Ndibe By The SSS In Nigeria (http://www.saharareporters.com/press-release/statement-rnc-arrest-and-proposed-interrogation-prof-okey-ndibe-sss-nigeria)