DSS arrests Actor Chiwetalu Agu hours after being released by soldiers

The Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested the popular Nollywood veteran actor, Chiwetalu Agu, Newsflash Nigeria learnt.

The arrest came hours after the actor was released by the Nigerian Army following his arrest, torture and overnight detention by soldiers.

Mr Agu said he was distributing bread to the poor in Onitsha when he was arrested by soldiers and brutalised for wearing a dress that symbolises the rising sun, which is also the emblem of the defunct Biafra nation.

In a viral video after his arrest by soldiers, Chiwetalu Agu said he was sharing bread with hungry Nigerians and not demonstrating for anyone to join Biafra.

According to him, his outfit is just a dress with a rising sun and not anyway representing the Eastern Security Network, ESN.

He said: “What I’m wearing is a civil dress. This is not Biafran wear it is a rising sun and not an Eastern Security Outfit, ESN. I know where to go with this outfit.

“This sun on the dress I’m wearing is just a rising sun because I believe I must rise.

“I was sharing bread when they came to arrest me, I was not organising any demonstration. Is it wrong to feed the hungry Nigerians?”

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Mr Agu was taken into custody by the DSS shortly after his release by the army, his friends said, amidst claims that the repressive secret police may also torture and hold him in custody indefinitely.

 “Chiwetalu Agu is still not free. He is with DSS now,” writer Chiagozie Nwonwu said on Facebook.

“Colleagues say they are looking for a top lawyer to bail him,” Nwonwu wrote on his known Facebook page on Friday.”

The Actors Guild of Nigeria on Friday  also confirmed that Nollywood Actor, Chiwetalu Agu, has been picked up by men of the Department of State Services.

AGN President, Emeka Rollas, revealed this in a telephone chat with one of our correspondents on Friday.

According to him, the actor was arrested by the secret police shortly after he was released by the Nigerian Army.

Rollas said, “The AGN is aware that the DSS has picked up Chiwetalu Agu after the Nigerian Army arrested him.

“We are currently working on securing his release.”

Reports have circulated on social media that Mr Agu was being tortured to admit ties to proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The DSS has a history of repression, intimidation and targeted assassination of government critics.

The arrest of Mr Agu, 65, came as President Muhammadu Buhari commenced deployment of security forces across the Igbo-dominated South-East region to quell separatist agitations.

The call for succession has grown across the region since 2015 when the regime arrested Nnamdi Kanu.

Mr Kanu was freed on bail by a federal judge in Abuja in 2017, but he was abducted in June 2021 by regime security officials in Kenya and removed from that country to Nigeria. He has remained in custody ever since.

Mr Agu has said his decision to wear a dress with Biafran emblem was not to fan embers of secession, although he has previously criticised Mr Buhari as sectional and decried apparent marginalisation of Igbo ethnic group by the regime.

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Uche Emmanuel

Uche Emmanuel is a seasoned editor and reporter. He graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State. He studied Psychology. A blogger for the past 5 years.

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