Ekiti rigging tape: Army after Captain Koli, says lawyer

A lawyer, Mr. Akinola Ajayi, has narrated how the military detained, allegedly chained and starved Adamu Koli, younger brother of Captain Koli, who recorded the controversial audio tape in which a rigging for the June 21 governorship election in Ekiti State was alleged planned.

He said the military is hunting for the senior Koli, who has been on self exile since he released the tape. He added that the military had claimed that the case was about national security.

The audio tape purportedly captured the voices of the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, now Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose; ex-Minister of State for Defence, Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro; Brig.-Gen. Aliyu Momoh, who was in charge of the election; Osun PDP governorship candidate, Senator Iyiola Omisore; and Minister for Police Affairs, Jelili Adesinyan, in a meeting where they allegedly gave directives to the military to favour the PDP.

In an interview with Sahara Reporters, which webcast was monitored by SUNDAY PUNCH on Saturday, Ajayi said the boy was detained and tortured to get the whereabouts of the officer.

The lawyer stated that he was filing charges against the military for the abuse of the boy's rights.

He said, "The boy was held incommunicado and in solitary confinement. In the confinement, he went through psychological trauma and it was to know basically to know the whereabouts of his older brother, Captain Koli.

"The military officers must have detained him, thinking it would be a bait with which to catch Koli, who they are looking for. "

He further the officers were hostile to the boy initially but when they could not obtain the needed information from him, they became friendly to him.

"The boy was only praying for his dying time till he was left the hook," Ajayi added.

While he denied reports that the boy was fed with worms, the lawyer said he was starved. He added that the boy was chained to a bed apparently when he became aggressive over his unlawful detention.

"He told me that while he was chained to the bed, there was a military officer watching over him," the lawyer added.

Ajayi explained that he had to file a petition to the Army authorities in November 2014, which was entitled 'Petition against unlawful detention and abduction of 15-year-old Adamu Koli' and made several efforts before the boy was released.

He said, "In the little interaction I had with General Momoh, he said he was not comfortable with human rights lawyers. He asked me if I would subscribe to anything that has to do with national security. I said the man directly involved in the case (Koli) can answer the question by himself.

"The young man is not a military officer and it is not an offence being a junior brother to a serving military officer."

Ajayi said he was called in the last week of December from the Akure cantonment where the boy was detained to fetch the boy.