Written by Gabriel Gee Black Egere(Based on a true life story)
It was to my surprise the music director (Name Withheld)
called me after the church choir practice that i will be taking the rap in the
second song the Church choir was to present on that day. I immediately answered
cool and then it hit my head few minutes later that does this guy know what he
is saying? It is not just a normal church service, but an annual event tagged Pastor's
praise night which draws about 5000 to 6000 crowds with so many Dignitaries,
E.G Governors, Deputy governors OBA's of Yoruba Land etc. all the top gospel
artist were billed to perform and even the veterans like Evangelist Ebenezer
Obey who happen to be one of my mentors. The late Sunny Okosun, Panam Percy Paul
etc.
I began composing my rap and making sure i put my best out!
We had just 3 weeks to the main event. I mastered my rap i could even rap it in
my sleep. Lol It got to the main day. I was so excited i couldn’t sleep all
through the night. We got to the church and the crowd were pouring in. what got
me more excited was the new arrivals of the host choir outfits that were
specially ordered and shipped from USA. Sincerely we all looked like a million bucks.
Lol
The event started and the adrenaline rush was real, after a
couple of electrifying performance from different artist. The choir was called
to come out and perform their numbers. The first song we rendered was (I almost
let go by Kurt Carr) the reception was overwhelming. Then it got to the second
song. I stepped out from the crowd and stepped forward to grab the MIC. Knowing
the gravity of the event. The song started and the energy was big, Knowing my
rap was verse 2, i was just jumping around and showing I could dance. (LMAO)
about 15 seconds to when my rap was to come in I stepped forward fully only
then did THE HALOGEN reflect on my head and my brain went blank .I'm talking
about a stage filled with about 30 powerful high tech lightening’s. I tried to
remember how my rap was to begin and I couldn't, while dancing and showing so
much confidence i still struggled and struggled in my head. I struggled so hard
i was begging to remember what the first line of the rap was, my rap was 5
seconds to come in and i still couldn’t remember.it dawned on me that i was
just about to embarrass myself and not just myself but the whole entire church
publicly then i gave up and did a freestyle. Freestyle to a song hit them high
by B-Real Coolio, Method man, Busta rhymes & LL Cool J from the 90's, I
took some of method man's 16 bars and ate my mouth till the end the crowd at
that point went crazy and full of energy. Then quickly we got back to the
chorus and the choir took it from there, then the song was over and the crowd gave us a loud round of applause we all walked off the stage majestically. LOL
Knowing what just happened. I got back to my sit and was
just very uncomfortable refusing to say a word but all my real hommies back
then were stretching their hands to say well done and my favorite chycks were
blowing me kisses from afar.my brain was still trying to comprehend what
happened
to me on that stage. 10 minutes later i got up to go get a
drink. gently and quietly sneaked out of my sit only then did i realize what
the crowd was like.
Walked through the crowd and what i first heard was Owun ni
yen(Yoruba) which means he is the one(English) more of it came from different
angles and people started saying well done bro, the ones that knew me called my
name(papa) and the ones close to where i walked through gave me a handshake. I
put on a fake smile and I walked on. Many fingers pointed at me from the crowd
but i kept moving till i got to where i needed to get the drink.
Told who sold a drink i needed a bottle of coke and one meat
pie snack. Immediately i heard a lady voice from my back that said. You can
take what you want, I will pay, I turned and it was someone i admired so much
but never had the chance to get close to. I smiled and said. Really why would
you pay for me and she said because you are a star. I smiled and took a deep
breath. She went further to say you did very well out there. And asked that what was the feeling to be out
there doing what i did, before i started explaining, people came by and asked
were you the one that just did the rap on stage? Then the lady answered and
said yes. The people said wow. That was awesome keep it up, the lady turned
back to me and said you see. You are a star. Things were never the same after
that day for me.
After so much anticipation. Legendary 704 Enertainment Artist (Gee Black) finally releases Never Fear ft Manoozy(produced by Kid Konnect) 3rd single coming from his Legendary Lane album!
Shout out to my Team 704 and to the non Team704. We know soon y'all going to be on our team(Smiles) Thank you for the support so far. I am excited about my new release dropping 1-March-2014. even though some peeps in my team think i am giving out too much. I feel keeping such music to myself is being selfish. Never fear is my 3rd single and first international collaboration produced by Award winning producer (Kid Konnect) who has worked with artist like M.I, Ice Prince, Beazy just to mention a few! Also o
n the track is my high school (F.G.C.Enugu) friend and brother like no other. (Manoozy) C.E.O. GWG Entertainment/ Rapper Extra Ordinary. Make we no talk too much. when the song drops. Please do not hesitate to give your feedback and of course still counting on your support!
For Bookings------>
Email: legendary704entertainment@gmail.com
Telephone: +234-7033732268
Follow Gee Black on these other platform
Youtube: youtube.com/704records
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Good morning wonderful people. Hope we all had a wonderful weekend? I did. Last week was eventful and the weekend was awesome. Pray for great things to happen in our lives this new week and forever Amen. I love and appreciate my fans and supporters.
Drive Time with Gee Black on 704 Radio show is Premiering this week. A weekly broadcast that brings you the hottest top 5 songs on earth. Stay tuned for more info.
Ladies and Gentlemen. Happy new month from Legendary704 Entertainment. May we experience all round joy. It is the lovers month again(February). Get My Baby by Gee Black as your callertune. MTN -Text 040255 to 4100. Airtel - Text Buy 0145358 to 791 Thanks for your countless support. Callertune for Pay my money coming soon. #reppin704music
Good morning beautiful people! Gee Black was hosted at the Enigma Variety night yesterday Wednesday 29TH January 2014 that took place at Ember Creek Awolowo way Ikoyi Lagos. He thrilled the crowd first with a freestyle rap and then performed his new single Pay my money, that had so many people dancing along. Find pictures below.Follow us on Twitter: @geeblack704 @Team704music #reppin704music
Mrs Dupe Onitiri-Abiola, one of the wives of late Chief MKO Abiola, has announced her intentions to contest the governorship seat in Lagos State in the next general elections. Mrs Onitiri-Abiola says she has 'all the formula to solve unemployment, electricity&education problems plaguing Lagos state'
Mrs Onitiri-Abiola has not revealed the political party she would contest on. She says she is still studying the existing ones and would make her choice known by the end of the month.
acklemore & Ryan Lewis were nominated for 7 Grammy Awards last night and won 4 - Best New Artist, Best Rap Song, Best Rap Performance and beat Jay Z, Kanye West, Drake & Kendrick Lamar for Best Rap Album.
Many people felt Kendrick should have won Best Rap Album at least and so did Macklemore. After the awards, he apologized to Kendrick for 'robbing' him. See his text to Kendrick after the cut
Former FCT minister Mallam Nasir El-Ruafi has finally honoured the invitation of the State Security Service, SSS, days after armed men from the security agency stormed his home in Abuja to pick him up to answer some questions in connection with a statement credited to him that there might be violence if the 2015 general elections were not free and fair. (If you missed it, read all about it here). Find an update after the cut...
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has announced February 14 2015 as the date for Nigeria's presidential election as well as those for the members of the National Assembly.
Governorship and State House of Assembly elections are scheduled for February 28, 2015.
This was contained in statement released last night & signed by the Commission's secretary, Augusta Ogakwu. The commission also announced that the Ekiti State governorship election will hold on June 21, 2014 while that of Osun State will hold on August 9, 2014. Continue...
Since the inception of democratic government in Nigeria, Presidential and Governorship elections usually hold in April which would then be followed by the inauguration of the winners on May 29th which is Democracy Day.
Choi! What some people are doing with money! Cash Money Records co-founder & Hip Hop tycoon Bryan Williams, aka Birdman showed off his solid gold toilet on his instagram page yesterday.
According to reports, the toilet is gold-plated, but the seat and the cover is solid gold and it cost $1m.
According to reports, Dana Airline has successfully passed the operational audit exercise by the NCAA and would start operations as from today Saturday January 25th.
A statement from the airline said following the successful outcome of the operational audit of Dana Air by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the airline is set to recommence full commercial flight operations today.
Announcing the resumption of flight operations in Lagos, the Chief Operating Officer & Accountable Manager, Mr. Yvan Drewinsky, said the lifting of the suspension order is a testament that Dana Air adheres strictly to prescribed safety standards as dictated by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards.
According to a report by Channels TV, seven men appeared in court in Bauchi on Wednesday, Jan. 22, on charges of being involved in same-sex relationships.
The case drew thousands of protesters to the court, who threw stones at the men as they were being transported back to prison after the trial, as security forces fired into the air to disperse the angry crowd.
The men were arrested by the Bauchi State Sharia Commission for allegedly engaging in homosexual activities, acts that contravene the Islamic laws which the state had been operating under since 2001.
The men were named as Shehu Adamu, Yusuf Adamu, Aliyu Dalhatu, Abdulmalik Tanko, Usman Sabo and Hazif Sabo Abubakar and Ibrahim Marafa. Continue...
It was the first case since President Goodluck Jonathan signed a bill that criminalises same-sex relationships, defying Western pressure over gay rights and provoking criticism from the United States.
The bill, which contains penalties of up to 14 years in prison and bans gay marriage, same-sex “amorous relationships” and membership of gay rights groups, was passed by the National Assembly last May but Jonathan had delayed signing it into law until early January.
At Thursday’s trial, the prosecuting lawyer said the case was a direct result of the recently-passed law.
“This is further to the law against homosexuals which was signed by the President. It has to be implemented. People caught breaking this law must be prosecuted accordingly,” said Danlami Ayuba.
Gee Black finally drops the video to his 2013 hit single My Baby which features Jazzy and was directed by @kutifilmworks in the city of Lagos Nigeria. Still fresh in the music industry Gee Black is one guy you should watch out for! Twitter/Instagram: @geeblack704 / Legendary 704 Entertainment (C) 2014
Six out of 10 people who are trafficked to the West are Nigerians. Premium Times investigative reporter, Tobore Ovuorie, was motivated by years of research into the plight of trafficked women in the country, as well as the loss of a friend, to go undercover in a multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise. She emerged, bruised and beaten but thankfully alive, after witnessing orgies, big money deals in jute bags, police-supervised pickpocketing, beatings and even murder. This is her story. Continue...
We are 10 at the boot camp: Adesuwa, Isoken, Lizzy, Mairo, Adamu, Ini, Tessy, Omai, Sammy and I. We have travelled together in a 14 seater bus from Lagos, hoping to arrive in Italy soon. We are eager to get to the ‘next level’ as it is called: from local prostitution to hopefully earning big bucks abroad. But first, it turns out, we have to pass through ‘training’ in this massive secluded compound guarded by armed military men, far from any other human being, somewhere in the thick bushes outside Ikorodu, a suburb of Lagos. Our trafficker, Mama Caro, welcomes us in flawless English, telling us how lucky and special we are; then she ushers us to a room where we are to sleep on the floor without any dinner.
I had not expected this. We had exercised, through a risk analysis role play, in advance: my paperPREMIUM TIMES, and our partners on the project, a colleague–Reece Adanwenon– in the Republic of Benin, and ZAM Chronicle in Amsterdam. We had put in place contacts, emergency phone numbers, safe houses, emergency money accounts. We had made transport and extraction arrangements. Ms. Reece is waiting in Cotonou, 100 kilometers to the West in neighbouring Benin, to pick me up from an agreed meeting place. But we hadn’t foreseen that there was to be another stop first: this isolated, guarded camp in the middle of nowhere. It dawns on me that we could be in big trouble.
“Our trafficker, Mama Caro, welcomes us in flawless English, telling us how lucky and special we are; then she ushers us to a room where we are to sleep on the floor without any dinner.”
Risk analysis and preparation
It had all started in Abuja, with me deciding to expose the human traffic syndicates that caused the death, through Aids, of my friend Ifuoke and countless others. As a health journalist, I had interviewed several returnees from sex traffic who had not only been encouraged to have unprotected sex, but who had also been denied health care or even to return home when they fell ill. They were now suffering from Aids, anal gonorrhea, bowel ruptures and incontinence. In the case of some of them, who hailed from conservative religious backgrounds, doctors in their home towns had denied them any treatment because they had been ‘bad’. I was also aware that powerful politicians and government and army officials, who outwardly professed religious purity, were servicing and protecting the traffickers.I wanted to break through the hypocrisy and official propaganda and show how, every day, criminals in Nigeria are helped by the powerful to enslave my fellow young citizens. My PREMIUM TIMES colleagues had done undercover work before; they had warned me of the risks, but had agreed to support me in my decision to go through with it. With my colleagues, and with the help of ZAM Chronicle, we then started in earnest.
“I wanted to break through the hypocrisy and official propaganda and show how, every day, criminals in Nigeria are helped by the powerful to enslave my fellow young citizens.”
Oghogho
I had advertised my wish to get to know a ‘madam’ whilst walking the streets of Lagos, dressed as a call girl.It worked. I had met Oghogho Irhiogbe, an accomplished, well-groomed graduate in her thirties (though she claimed to be only 26), and a wealthy human trafficker of note. My lucky hunch to tell her that my name was ‘Oghogho’ too had immediately warmed her to me. She told me I looked like her kid sister and from then on treated me like a favourite.
“Don’t worry about crossing borders and getting caught,” she had told me. “Immigration, customs, police, army and even foreign embassies are part of our network. You only run into trouble with them if you fail to be obedient to us.” I already knew this to be true. Two of the trafficked sex workers I had interviewed had tried to find help at Nigerian embassies in Madrid and Moscow, only to realise that the very embassy officials from whom they had sought deportation had immediately informed their pimps. They had eventually made it back to Nigeria only after they had developed visible diseases, such as AIDS-related Kaposi sarcoma.
“Precious had already made enough money to start building her own house in Enugu, halfway between Abuja and Port Harcourt.”
Oghogho Irhiogbe had been luckier. She owned four luxury cars, two houses in Edo State, and was busy completing the building of a third house near the Warri airport in Delta State. Others I had met through my initial ‘call girl’ exploits were clearly on their way to riches, too. Priye was set to go back to the Netherlands, where she worked before, to become a ‘madam’. Ivie and Precious were quite happy to go back to Italy. Precious had already made enough money to start building her own house in Enugu, halfway between Abuja and Port Harcourt.
Forza Speciale
It is on the windy Sunday evening of October 6 that I make my first contact with the outer ring of this mafia. A big party with VIPs is on the cards; the kind of party an ordinary girl, or rather ‘product’, as we are called by traffickers, is not usually invited to. But I am currently on a fortune ride: Oghogho’s favourite. Additionally, I have been classified as ‘Special Forces’, or ‘Forza Speciale’ as my new contacts say, borrowing the Italian term. It’s a rule of thumb, I understand, that a syndicate subjects girls to classification through a check on their nude bodies and I, too – in the company of some male and female judges, headed by a trafficker called Auntie Precious – had been checked. I had received the highest classification. “This means that you don’t have to walk the streets. You can be an escort for important clients,” Auntie Precious had told me in a soft, congratulatory tone. The ones of ‘lesser’ classification were referred to as Forza Strada, the Road Force.
The party is held at a gorgeous residence along the Aguiyi Ironsi Way in Maitama, Abuja. This is designed to be a festive end to a great day, in which we went to church, hung out at the choicest places in town, shopped and got dressed in a suite at the Abuja power citadel, meeting point of the elite, the Transcorp Hilton.
“The ‘dividend’ is not from prostitution and trafficking alone, but Oghogho won’t tell me what the other source is.”
It is more like an orgy. Male and female strippers entertain guests, drugs abound, alcohol is everywhere in unrestrained flow; there is romping in the open. Also, big bags of money are changing hands. Barely an hour after we arrive, Oghogho receives a big jute bag, which is delivered from another room. As we walk out and she puts the money in the boot of her car, she smiles at me. “Don’t worry; very soon, you’ll get to receive dividend.” This ‘dividend’ is not from prostitution and trafficking alone, but Oghogho won’t tell me what the other source is. “When you come on board fully, you’ll know.”
A retired army colonel from the Abacha era sees to it that we are not disturbed. “He has top connections and sees to a smooth flow of the business,” Oghogho tells me.
Pickpocketing training
How ‘top’ these connections are, I find when I am taken with a group of girls to be trained in pickpocketing. We, a group of ten ‘products’, are placed at various crowded bus stops in the suburb of Ikorodu, where we must ‘practice’ under the guard of two army officers, a policeman as well as a number of male ‘trainers’. The policeman doesn’t even bother to cover his name badge: Babatunde Ajala, it reads.
The general operation is supervised by Mama Caro, popularly called Mama C, a 50-something, light-complexioned, busty woman. Her deputy is a Madam Eno. Mama C has told us that pickpocketing is a crucial skill for the Forza Speciale: we will need to be able to pick valuables from clients. She adds that the pickings are added to the girls earnings, so we will be able to pay off our debts– commonly called ‘meeting our targets’ – in a short time.
When I perform dismally, Eno rains abuses on me. We are all to stay at the bus stop until I pick an item from somebody. It is already 11 PM.Tired, hungry and angry with me, Adesuwa, Isoken and the policeman guarding my group pick some extra pockets and hand me the items, so that I can show them to Eno.
“ We practice pickpocketing under the guard of two army officers and a policeman”
The next day, the bumpy journey to the ‘training camp’ appears endless. My fellow ‘products’ are snoozing and I battle to stay awake, wondering if we are tired or drugged. I note the bus moving off the main road somewhere around Odogunyan, into thick bushes, almost a forest.We stop at a compound guarded by armed military men. As my fellow ‘products’ wake up, it is clear that they think we are still in Lagos.
New names and indenture
The next day starts with strip tease and lap dance training after breakfast, and thereafter poise and etiquette. Five other girls have arrived in the meantime. They are all graduates, leaving for Italy fully aware of what they are to do there. “If I get caught by local police, I will just tell them I was trafficked against my will,” one of them, Gbemi, says light-heartedly. “I don’t think oyinbo (white man) will believe Mama C if she says that I am there voluntarily.”
I receive a crash course in pedicure and manicure because I am so bad at pickpocketing. “You’ll be utilizing these skills at my wellness centre in Italy,” Mama C says, after scolding me for being lazy and testing her patience. “You will be working on only men whilst wearing sexy dresses. That will enable you to attract customers.”
“Mama C makes us sign a statement that we have willingly embarked on the journey”
Later, Mama C makes everyone sign a statement that they have willingly embarked on the journey and that they are to return certain sums as professional fees to her. No girl is given a copy of what she has signed and the amount varies inexplicably: while Isoken signs up for a debt of US $100,000, I will have only US $70,000 to pay. We are told that we will receive new passports with false names and even false nationalities in Cotonou. I am to become a Kenyan, Mairo South African, and so on. “I have boys in the Benin immigration office,” boasts Mama C.
Horror
A just-arrived traditional ‘doctor’ then puts us through rites that involve checking the horoscope of each girl as well as collecting some of her blood, fingernails, hair and pubic hair. He then picks out four of us as ‘problematic’ and says we will bring ‘bad luck’. Either he is really clairvoyant or he is a professional security operative who has run background checks on us, because he is right about at least three of the four. Two of us have had unfortunate earlier experiences involving deportation back to Nigeria and are possibly known to the authorities in Europe. I am number three.
What happens next is like a horror movie.
As we ‘unlucky’ four, are standing aside, Mama C talks with five well-dressed, classy, influential-looking visitors.The issue is a ‘package’ that Mama C has promised them and that she hasn’t been able to deliver. The woman points at me, but Mama C refuses and for unexplained reasons Adesuwa and Omai are selected. We all witness, screaming and trying to hide in corners, as they are grabbed and beheaded with machetes in front of us. The ‘package’ that the visitors have come for turns out to be a collection of body parts. The mafia that holds us is into organ traffic, too.
“We all witness Adesuwa and Omai being beheaded in front of us. The ‘package’ that the visitors have come for turns out to be a collection of body parts. ”
With all of us trembling and crying, I and the other three ‘unsuitable’ ones are herded into a separate room. Mama C comes later to take me to yet another room for questioning. Angry beyond measure, she whips me all night, telling me to yield information on the ‘forces’ protecting me. “You are going nowhere,” she keeps shouting. “I have invested too much in you!”
Clearing the ‘spirit’
The next morning Mama C eats her breakfast while I starve: I have last eaten the previous morning. When she finished, and whilst the ‘approved products’ leave for Cotonou, Benin, to commence their journey to Italy, Mama C takes us four ‘unsuitables’ to visit three new, different ‘doctors’: one in the Agege neighbourhood of Lagos, the second in rural Sango Ota village and the third in remote Abeokuta in Ogun State. She clearly believes in traditional ‘medicine’ and is desperate to find a treatment for the ‘demons’ we are said to carry.
The first two ‘doctors’ agree with the first one that I am bad news, but the third, after roughly cutting off most of my hair, declares me free from the ‘spirit’. The ‘evil spirits’ in the other three girls, meanwhile, have been ‘beaten out of them’ with dry whips. Back at the camp the first ‘doctor’ rages at Mama C for approving me, insisting that the ‘doctor’ who ‘freed me from the spirit’ is a fraud. “This girl will bring about your downfall! You will end up in jail!” I am all the more convinced that he possesses not supernatural powers, but certain information.The syndicates are well-connected and someone may have told him that I am not who I say I am. The ‘doctor’ keeps repeating that ‘forces’ are protecting me. But Mama C insists that she is not to lose her investment.
“The ‘doctor’ keeps repeating that ‘forces’ are protecting me. But Mama C insists that she is not to lose her investment.”
Meanwhile, new ‘products’ have arrived to pass through the rites that night. The whole camp is again in the grip of fear as chilling screams indicate that some of the new arrivals – two girls and a young man, I learned later – are also murdered.
“Oghogho, I wonder what actually brought you here. I never expected a girl like you to venture into this,” says one of Mama C’s errand boys, as he enters the room I had again been locked in later that night with a plate of food.He seems well disposed to me. “You found and returned my Blackberry that I lost during one of the pickpocketing training sessions,” he explains. I had not realised the escort whose phone I found had been this boy; then, he had worn a cap pressed deep into his eyes. “Other girls would just have kept my phone,” he says. “You don’t belong here.I keep wondering what level of poverty has made you endanger yourself. You don’t deserve this.”
The plate of food is all I need to get my strength back. We are to travel the following morning.
Escape
As we are about to leave, I lose my phone to the army officer. Searching all of us, he has taken Isoken’s phone already and she has pointed at me to divert attention from herself, saying I had a phone too. He takes mine at gunpoint.I can only thank the heavens that it is dead. I had been upset because it didn’t charge the previous night, but the fact that it won’t switch on is my second lucky break: it has a lot of pictures and conversations I have recorded in the camp. The disadvantage of losing my phone is that I can’t contact our colleague Reece, who is to help me once I get to Cotonou. I also can’t communicate with my editors back in Nigeria.
All along the road leading up to the border, police and customs officers wave and greet Madam Eno and our head of operations, Mr James. Nigerian Immigrations and Customs officers also greet us warmly at the border post itself, whilst enquiring if there is anything in it for them today.
“Welcome, Madam! How have sales been?”
Eno: “Not much.”
“But your batch was allowed entry yesterday, so why claim you haven’t been making sales? “
Eno: “We are not the owner of yesterday’s batch of girls. We own these ones in this bus.”
“Haaa!You want to play a smart one? Not to worry, your boss will sort all this out with us.”
The officers then wave the minibus through without any form of documentation.
The original plan was for me to go with the transport as far as Cotonou, the capital of our neighbouring country Benin. But I don’t want to stretch it any longer. The border is usually very crowded and I plan to escape as soon as we are there. It works. Just after the Seme border post, in front of a crowded, muddy market, I run. Merging with the crowd, I take my top off – I have another top under it – and cover my head with a scarf. The army officer is following me, looking for me. I dive into a store and lose him.
“Just after the Seme border post, in front of a crowded, muddy market, I ran.”
I travel the twenty kilometres from the border motor park to Cotonou by minibus taxi.Colleague Reece – alerted by a phone call the driver helps make to her to ensure that she will be there to pay him – will wait for me there. Upon arrival, I see a woman I recognise from her Facebook photo. “Reece?”“Tobore!” She cries and holds out her arms to catch me. “I am safe.”
The State Security Service, SSS, has finally secured a warrant of arrest for the Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Nasir El-Rufai, and has now launched a manhunt for him, the spokesperson for the agency has said. This is even as armed operatives of the Service again stormed a second house in Abuja believed to belong to the former minister in their desperate bid to arrest him.
They had earlier in the afternoon invaded his first house in the Maitama District of the nation’s capital, but could not find him as he had reportedly gone to pick his children from school. They were said to have tried to force their way in to arrest the former minister. Continue...
In the latest siege on another property, also in the Maitama District, the operatives were said to have beaten up some private guards for refusing them entry.
The spokesperson of the SSS, Marylyn Ogar, confirmed that the operatives visited Mr. El-Rufai’s second house to arrest him, but denied that anyone was beaten.
“I hate cheap blackmail,” Ms. Ogar told Premium Times on telephone. “We went to the first place, nobody was beaten up. How will we go to the second place and beat people up?”
She explained that the SSS got an arrest warrant demanded by Mr. El-Rufai, but could not find him to personally serve him the document. “We extended a friendly invitation to him,” the SSS spokesperson said. “He was invited honourably to come and make some explanations about the comments attributed to him. “He said he wanted an arrest warrant. We have now obtained that from a competent court and we are wondering why he is running. “We want to serve it on him. Or is there any Nigerian that is above the law? “The president has said his ambition is not worth any Nigerian’s blood. So why will anyone else be making provocative statements?”
The manhunt for the former minister followed his refusal to honour an invitation from the SSS on Thursday.
He cited his pending suit against the Service over his detention in a hotel in Awka during the Anambra State Governorship last November 16 as the reason for refusing to honour the invitation. Mr. El-Rufai also insisted on seeing a warrant of arrest before he could go to the SSS office. The invitation of the APC chief was in connection with his remarks at a conference in Abuja on Wednesday that there might be violence if the 2015 general elections were not credible.
Meanwhile, Mr. El-Rufai, in statement by his media advisor, Muyiwa Adekeye, on Friday, confirmed that armed SSS officials stormed his home in Abuja following his rejection of the attempt by the organization to compel him to report at their office without a valid warrant.
The statement said the former minister had on Thursday firmly told the Director General of SSS that he would be exercising his right not to go to the SSS offices except a warrant mandates him and offered to meet the SSS officials in his home or office.
“The armed invasion of his house is a clear indication that the SSS imagines itself as an agency immune from respecting fundamental rights, behaviour akin to a gathering of toughs before whom every citizen must quake,” the statement said.
“The SSS agents did not produce any warrant to back their invasion of his premises. “The assault on El-Rufai’s house continues a sorry tradition of serial violation of his rights by the SSS which has arrested him at airports and hotels.
“The most recent was the action of the SSS in violating his right to freedom of movement in Awka during the Anambra elections. Without any just cause or formal charge, the Directorate of State Security Services (SSS) had unlawfully detained El Rufai, the Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the premises of Finotel Hotel, Akwa, Anambra State, from the 15th day of November, 2013 to the 16th day of November, 2013.”
The statement said during the period, Mr. El-Rufai was not only restricted to the hotel, he was denied access to his congregational prayer as a devout Muslim, and kept incommunicado without access to anyone and or the press.
It stated that in order to remedy the flagrant violation of his fundamental rights as enshrined in sections 35, 39, 40 and 41 of the Constitution, the former minister sued the SSS, seeking eight reliefs, including an injunction to restrain the SSS from further infringing on his fundamental rights.
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