The arrest of some notable politicians in Ekiti State by the Department of State Services (DSS) has caused panic among the members of the state House of Assembly and top officials in the state.
The DSS had on Friday invaded the state assembly and arrested four lawmakers, including Hon. Afolabi Akanni and Hon. Musa Arogundade, representing Efon and Ado constituency II.
The identities of the other two lawmakers were still sketchy as at the time of filing the report, with the Speaker of the assembly, Hon Kola Oluwawole, refusing to divulge same when he was asked by journalists.
Others arrested and were being drilled in Abuja were the state: Commissioner for Works, Kayode Oso, Finance Commissioner, Mr. Toyin Ojo, Special Assistant on Works, Mr. Odunayo Talabi, the sacked Special Assistant to the governor on Revenue and Chairman, Board of Internal Revenue, Mr. Ropo Ogunjobi, while Fayose’s Chief of Staff, Mr. Dipo Anisulowo and a few others had been invited by the security agency.
When THISDAY visited the assembly yesterday, less than five out of the 24 remaining legislators were seen at their duty posts due to the fact that many of them were still on the wanted list of the DSS over alleged sundry offences, particularly over the roles they played in the heat of the alleged plot to impeach the governor by the outgone assembly.
While addressing journalists in Ado-Ekiti last Friday, Oluwawole said about 18 members of the assembly had been slated for arrests and interrogation over what he described as phantom offences, describing President Muhammadu Buhari’s government as gradually sliding into dictatorship.
At the governor’s office and the state secretariat where top government officials were operating, few of them also reported at their offices to perform their statutory duties.
Those found to have reported were said to have performed skeletal duties and left for other engagements quickly for fear of the unknown.
Meanwhile, the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed outrage over comments by a foremost rights activist lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, accusing the men of the DSS of intimidating of members of Fayose’s cabinet, as rather disturbing and undeserving of his position as a pro-democracy activist.
It regretted that a known advocate of truth, civil rights and a defender of constitutionalism is fast losing steam over “rabid partisanship that has eroded his flowery credentials while defending falsehood founded on rumours.”
Ozekhome was said to have reacted in a statement, accusing DSS of intimidation and unlawful duty, even as he accused Buhari of intimidating Fayose over his criticism of the president.
But reacting to Ozekhome’s charge in a press statement by APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, the party accused the senior lawyer of engaging in spreading falsehood, regretting that the civil right advocate is fast losing focus as a defender of truth while protecting people thriving in criminality and falsehood.
-thisdaylive