Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has condemned the invasion and sealing-off of the Abuja and Sokoto residences of the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA), Rtd Col Sambo Dasuki, by the Department of State Services (DSS), alleging that dictatorship is returning to Nigeria.
“Persecution of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stalwarts and others perceived as [being] opposed to the All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government is an ominous sign of imminent return of dictatorship and draconian rule in Nigeria,” he said in a statement in Ado-Ekiti today by Lere Olayinka, his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media.
The governor, who however noted that he believed that the invasion of Col. Dasuki homes may not have the backing of President Mohammadu Buhari, added, “If this is being done by some people to please the president, he should check the excesses of those behind it and call them to order because overzealousness by those that are close to the president is inimical to the image of the government.”
Governor Fayose, who has in recent times personally directed a war against the legislature and judiciary in Ekiti State, said he was sad that democracy was already being put on trial, less than two months after President Buhari assumed office.
“Rather than invading homes of Nigerians and putting people under house arrest, the government should invade Boko Haram territories and arrest the insurgents,” he advised, with no trace of irony.
Governor Fayose also condemned what he called the persecution of Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.
“The desperate plot to remove Senator Ekweremadu from office is dangerous to democratic rule in Nigeria because there is no portion of the Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution that made positions of Senate President and Deputy Senate President the exclusive rights of the political party with highest number of senators,” the governor said, despite the PDP having used the same approach since 1999.
He urged President Buhari to keep Boko Haram, rather than opposition party members, under arrest, adding that the heavily armed security men that invaded Col. Dasuki’s Abuja and Sokoto homes should have been put to a better use by being sent to the Boko Haram ravaged Northeast.
He called on President Buhari to be magnanimous in victory, and to act like a leader and father of all Nigerians instead of seeing his return to power as an opportunity to revenge against those perceived to have wronged him in the past.
The governor asked, “Was there any invitation by the DSS to Col. Dasuki that he refused to honour? Isn’t it worrisome that in this democratic age, security agents could in a commando-like invade the house of a former NSA to carry out his arrest when there is no record that he was invited and he refused to honour the invitation, or that he resisted arrest?
“Could Col. Dasuki’s present ordeal be as a result of his advice that the presidential election be postponed?” Fayose asked, expressing worry over an “impending” clampdown on PDP members and other Nigerians perceived not to be on the same page with Buhari’s APC government
Fayose, who was one of the most abusive and vocal voices against Buhari during the campaigns, said he and his kind had merely supported their party during the contest as loyal party members should do, questioning whether such action now warrant persecution by the federal government.
“If Col. Dasuki actually committed any offence to warrant his arrest and questioning by the DSS or any of the country’s security agencies, shouldn’t warrant of arrest have been issued against him? Shouldn’t he have been invited by the DSS instead of invading his houses and sealing them off in a commando-liked manner?” he asked.
He called on Nigerians to rise against “this emerging dictatorship” and “save Nigeria from imminent collapse” warning that “today, it is Col. Dasuki, tomorrow it can be any other person.”