Lawmakers, Babatope criticise DSS for alleged invasion of Ekiti Assembly
Members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly yesterday blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for the arrest of their colleagues by operatives of the Department of Security Service (DSS)·
Chairman, of the Ekiti House Committee on Information, Chief Gboyega Aribisogan who briefed reporters at the national assembly complex in Abuja, argued that there was no way operatives of the DSS would have the temerity to storm the Ekiti assembly complex and whisk away their colleagues without the knowledge of president Buhari.
This is coming as a former Minister of Transport and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, criticised the DSS for alleged invasion of the Ekiti State House of Assembly.
He also condemned the manner at which the lawmakers and some commissioners were arrested and whisked to Abuja by the security agency.
Flanked by four of his colleagues who met with key members of the House of Representatives, Aribisogan maintained that members of the Ekiti Assembly were being held by the DSS as part of the All Progressives Congress (APC) controlled Federal Government sinister plot to destabilize Ekiti State and unseat Governor Peter Ayodele Fayose.
Stating that the plot against Fayose led administration would surely meet the brick wall, he reiterated their resolve to face all form of intimidation and harassment in the hands of security agents to safeguard democratic rule in Ekiti State.
However, the Ekiti State Commissioner of Finance and Economic Development, Chief Toyin Ojo, who was just released by the DSS, lampooned the security agency for working on rumours.
Babatope spoke yesterday in Ado-Ekiti when he paid a solidarity visit to Governor Ayo Fayose.He said: “These fellows are just kidding themselves. They will fail. Those who are not fighting the cause of the people will never succeed. I am an Awo trained person, I don’t have any grudge against EFCC or DSS. But each time there is anything rising against APC, the EFCC would just go and pick the person to hang.
“There is a limit to the political interest they can protect. EFCC and DSS must be told that they cannot be doing whatever they want, they must be doing what the people and the Nigerian constitution want, and we want just and fairness to all party.
“ The forceful arrest would not work. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo did it before and it failed, I am in the PDP. DSS and EFCC must work for Nigeria and not for a party or an individual.” Babatope said.
Ojo, who was arrested by the DSS on Monday but released Tuesday, said many of the questions DSS asked him were irrelevant and baseless.
He noted: “Gone are those days in Nigeria when impeachment notices against governors were signed on the table of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and this time around, if the DSS is programmed to play the role played by the EFCC under former President Obasanjo, it will fail.
“Also, if this harassment and intimidation is about 2018, we wish to state unequivocally that we in the PDP are fully on ground in Ekiti. We are not playing diaspora politics as being done by the APC and Nigerians should be rest assured that the APC will be defeated once again.’’
“We won’t be intimidated by any agency of the Federal Government, the DSS inclusive! Since last Friday that the State House of Assembly was invaded by armed men of the DSS, we have not been able to reach our members that we believed are being detained by the DSS here in Abuja.
“As at today, Hon Afolabi Akanni that the DSS Director in Ekiti State told us was with the DSS in Abuja is being held incommunicado. No one has been given access to him, not even his lawyers and doctors.
“With us here is Hon (Dr) Samuel Omotosho, who is Hon Afolabi Akanni’s personal physician. He has not been able to reach him since last week Friday.
“We have also been told that some of us have been slated for arrest and detention and it is on this note that we have come to inquire from the DSS those of us they still want to arrest so that we can turn ourselves in without giving them the stress of coming down to Ekiti.”
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1 Comments
Loooooooooooooooooolz….Buhari is so cheap and chicken hearted that he plays into the hands of his accusers / adversaries all of the time easily…. what a General!!
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