The Trent, the online newspaper that broke the story of the purported death of Gordon Obua, former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan, says it has no reason to retract the story. The Editor, Aziza Uko, told News Express this afternoon on phone: “We are standing by our story.”

In a follow-up story just uploaded, The Trent said it broke the story “following confirmation from a source who had been monitoring the situation closely.”

According to the report, “Since The Trent broke the story, there has been intense pressure from certain security quarters to recant the story of Obua’s death. Our reporter who is monitoring the situation has been issued with threats of being arrested by the Buhari government, which is seen as cracking down on officials who served in Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

“However, an informed security source who spoke with The Trent, on the condition of anonymity, insists that Obua died, Monday, in the underground dungeon at the DSS headquarters where he was being held and that the DSS is trying to craft an appropriate narrative that would deflect responsibility for his untimely death from the agency.

“Investigations by The Trent reveal that at the time of filing this report, no one has seen Obua alive. Not even his lawyer, none of his wives, or relatives or his physician have seen him.”

Mr. Obua’s lawyers had raised an alarm over the inhuman conditions in which he was allegedly being held in solitary confinement by the State Security Service (SSS), also known as Department of State Security (DSS). Obua was being held by the DSS since Thursday, July 16, 2015 without charges filed against him.

Three days ago, Onochie Onwuegbuna, the lead partner at Zeran Legal, had issued a press statement on behalf of Obua’s family complaining about the conditions in which his client was being detained and alleged that his client was being witch-hunted by the Buhari government. He said his client was diabetic and hypertensive and was being denied his drugs as well as food and water by the DSS.

•Photo shows Gordon Obua.

Update news