Ekiti Assembly warns members against honouring DSS summons

THE Ekiti State House of Assembly has warned its members against honouring any summons from the Department of State Security (DSS).

It said the manner a member, Afolabi Akanni, was detained for 18 days without trial, lent credence to widespread insinuation that the agency was being allegedly used by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to forcefully impeach Governor Ayodele Fayose.

The House also announced that the trio of Musa Arogundade, Badejo Anifowose and Sina Animasaun, who had gone underground since March 4, when DSS officials allegedly invaded the assembly complex, had reunited with members for legislative duties.

The Speaker, Kola Oluwawole, gave the hints at a news conference in Ado Ekiti.

However, the legislators have alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari and his party were determined to truncate the current administration in the state.

They warned against attempts to unseat the governor through illegal and anti-democratic means.

Speaking yesterday in Ibadan, Oyo State capital during an emergency press conference addressed by nine members of the assembly, the lawmakers, led by the Deputy Speaker, Adewumi Olusegun, alleged that no fewer that 11 members and top officials of the state government were Tuesday arrested.

The House Committee Chairman on Information, Youths and Sports, Gboyega Aribisogan who read a prepared statement before newsmen, declared: “No amount of intimidation, arrest, detention, harassment and monetary inducement will make us dance to the tune of those whose interest is to truncate the Fayose-led government and return to power through the backdoor.”

Meanwhile, the embattled Secretary of the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tope Aluko, has labelled the state governor a “Judas and betrayal.”

Aluko, who denied arriving the state with security agents to arrest party members and lawmakers, said the governor was only running away from his shadow following his recent outbursts on how the June 21, 2014 governorship election in the state was allegedly rigged.

The state government had on Tuesday evening accused Aluko and the state chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Jide Awe, of storming the state with security agents to allegedly arrest 11 lawmakers and top government functionaries, an allegation which Aluko vehemently denied.

Reacting, the Special Assistant to the governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, also described the embattled scribe as the present-day Judas of Ekiti State, saying: “The man is a Grade A scammer who is living large on the millions he is making from his present anti-Fayose agenda.”