Following the alleged invasion and arrest of four members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly on Friday evening by the operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS), Governor Ayodele Fayose has declared that he cannot be intimidated by any show of force by the Federal Government
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.”