Our attention has been drawn to the latest act of brigandage in Ekiti state by the Department of State Security on Saturday, 5th March 2015.
The gestapo operations reminiscent of Gulag Archipelago involved the arrest of the state finance commissioner,an ex-official of the state revenue agency and four members of the state House of Assembly.
Addressing newsmen on Saturday,the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Kola Oluwawole stated that the members were at their various duty posts at the House when SSS Operatives invaded its complex.
According to Oluwawole he said: “Not minding that various committees of the House were meeting, more than 10 DSS men who were armed to the teeth invaded the Assembly Complex, shooting sporadically into the air, thereby causing panic among members and staff of the House of Assembly, who had to scamper for safety
“At the end of the commotion created by this barbaric act, we discovered that four of our members could not be found.”
Let us declare upfront that we support the anti-corruption war of the Federal Government and all lawful steps taken to deal with infraction on public expenditure.
It is however clear that what is happening in Ekiti is pure political vendetta and sheer act of intimidation against a governor whose sole offense to reasonable observers is his loud but factual criticism of the Federal Government which is a critical ingredient of constitutional democracy.
Any act of investigation into public expenditure is the duty of either the EFCC or ICPC who are expected to politely invite suspects to their offices and effect arrests where such officials refuse to honor such invitations.
A mafia-like operation by the DSS against lawmakers is therefore clearly an act of intimidation and a suppression of our democracy and a violent violation of legislative operations as the lawmakers were violently whisked from the complex of the state assembly.
We demand the immediate release of all the abducted from this illegal captivity.
We also call on President Buhari to call the DSS to order as their activities are beginning to portray his administration as a military junta that is not founded on constitutional pillars.
The DSS under President Buhari has been behaving like the NSO of his military days against the opposition with no method, no matter how crude, being spared in their war arsenals.
Months ago, the same DSS invaded the Akwa Ibom Government House illegally months ago claiming it found arms and mountains of dollars in the place. Till date, we have heard nothing from that case again.Reasonable people concluded it was all part of the war of attrition to wrestle Akwa Ibom state.
Perceptive observers cannot ignore the fact that the strong arm tactics of the DSS is always targeted at the opponents of the present administration.
Or why have we not seen them invading the residence of Mr Rotimi Amaechi who has been indicted in Rivers state over allegations of theft of billions of public funds?Why were they not doing their bravado in Imo state where there is allegation of N2b bailout funds pocketed?
We call on all lovers of democracy in our country to stand up to this assault on the foundation of our democracy as we don’t know whose turn it would be next.
Comrade Olufemi Lawson.
National Coordinator,
National Frontiers
The National Frontiers is a Coalition of Pro-Democracy Civil Society Organisations
