Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has threatened to bar the Department of State Services from the Government House and other government establishments in the state.
The governor stated this in his reaction to the alleged invasion of the Ekiti State House of Assembly by the DSS on Friday.
Two members of the Assembly, Mr. Afolabi Akani, who represents Efon Alaye Constituency, and the representative of Ado Ekiti Constituency 1, Mr. Musa Arogundade, were allegedly arrested by the DSS.
The DSS was also said to have arrested Mr. Ropo Ogunjobi, who was recently sacked by the governor as the Chairman of the Internal Revenue Board.
But the police in the state said they were not aware of any invasion of the Assembly.
Spokesman for the police in the state Alberto Adeyemi said, “The command is not aware of any invasion by the DSS. You may speak with the DSS for clarification.”
However, a DSS official told our correspondent on Sunday that Akanni and Arogundade, as well as the Commissioner for Finance, Chief Toyin Ojo; Special Assistant on Works, Odunayo Talabi
(Arinka); and Ogunjobi had been invited by the DSS through its Ekiti State office.
The source said, “Through one of our men in the assembly, we got in touch with Akanni, who came to the DSS’s office. There is no way the DSS operatives could storm the assembly with arms to arrest anyone when there are armed policemen on guard.”
The invitation of the lawmakers, it was learnt, was aimed at ascertaining their involvement in the alleged fraud in the last governorship election in the state.
A former Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Dr. Temitope Aluko, had alleged that former President Goodluck Jonathan gave Fayose $35m to prosecute the election.
Aluko also alleged that Jonathan gave Fayose another $2m to enable him to win the PDP governorship primary.
Fayose was the candidate of the PDP during the election and it was alleged that he used the money to manipulate the security agencies to return to power for the second time.
The governor has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Fayose, in a statement on Sunday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said he would not succumb to intimidation.
The governor said, “The government of Ekiti State may have to reconsider the usefulness of men of the DSS in the Government House and other institutions of the state government.”
He added, “If (President Muhammadu) Buhari likes, let him relocate all DSS men in Nigeria with the entire ammunition in their armoury to Ekiti, the will of Ekiti people can never be broken. They will only try, and like they have always done, they will fail because dictatorship has never triumphed over the people. Even Buhari’s dictatorship between 1984 and 1985 ended one day and Nigerians will also outlive his current dictatorship.”
Fayose claimed the DSS under Lawal Daura had abandoned its core mandate of providing intelligence for internal security.
He said, “Instead of assisting the police, military and other security agencies with classified matters, we now have a DSS that is running after perceived opponents of the president, arresting goat and fowl thieves as well as husbands who assaulted their wives.
“If the DSS was alive to its responsibilities, we won’t be having Boko Haram insurgents killing Nigerians. All these kidnappings and Fulani herdsmen’s killings, raping and destroying farmlands in the South-West, South-East and North-Central zones in the country would have been nipped in the bud.”
He said the same way President Buhari used the National Security Organisation headed by Ambassador Mohammed Lawal Rafindadi from Katsina State was the same way the President had been using the DSS headed by another of his kinsman, Lawal Daura, to harass, oppress and intimidate Nigerians.
The governor said, “It is obvious that democracy in Nigeria is becoming unsafe at the hands of Buhari and his APC and those keeping silent now because of politics may also end up in the belly of this roaring lion that is threatening to consume our democracy.
“Therefore, Nigerians and the international community should take special notice of the use of the DSS and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to muscle opposition.
“As for me, I wish to say once again that I am not among those Nigerians that are afraid of harassment by any agency of the Federal Government.”
Meanwhile, the PDP in the state also criticised the development.
In a statement by the state Publicity Secretary, Mr Jackson Adebayo, Sunday, the party said the invasion had shown that Buhari had not discarded his dictatorial tendency.
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