A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, on Thursday lampooned the Department of State Service (DSS) over the alleged invasion of the Ekiti State House of Assembly and arrest of four lawmakers, saying their action was partisan.
Babatope, who said there is a limit to the political interest the security agencies would protect, added that EFCC and DSS must be told that they cannot be doing whatever they want, they must be doing what the people and the Nigerian constitution wants, “and we want just and fairness to all party”.
Babatope, a former Minister of Transport and Director of Organisation for Obafemi Awolowo’s Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), made the statement in Ado-Ekiti Thursday, when he paid a solidarity visit to Governor Ayo Fayose,
In his words, ” These fellows are just kidding themselves. I’m one with the Governor and the party. They will fail. What those who are not fighting the cause of the people are doing will never succeed.
” I’m an Awo trained person, I don’t have any grudge against EFCC or DSS. But each time there is anything rising against APC, the EFCC would just go and pick the person to hang.
” The forceful arrest would not work. Obasanjo did it before and it failed, I’m in the PDP. DSS and EFCC must work for Nigeria and not for a party or an individual. You can see that we are already gaining an upper hand, look at all the recent elections, PDP has triumphed in almost all of them. And by the grace of God, come 2019, we will show the APC the way out of Government.
“Apparently, there must be reasons why people now follow us. I can tell you that the APC’s romance with power would terminate in 2019. This is mere distraction, it won’t destroy our democracy. It is the EFCC and DSS that would bring themselves to shame, “he said.
He said President Buhari and himself belong to the same generation ” but I want to advise him that he should not dump democracy for selective justice, if he does that he would destroy himself. In any case, we have been preparing for him, such that come 2019, we will become stronger in PDP and dislodge him from Aso Rock, ” Babatope said.
Meanwhile, the recently released Ekiti State’s Commissioner of Finance and Economic Development, Chief Toyin Ojo, has taken a swipe at the DSS for asking him questions that were based on mere rumours and lacking in merit.
Chief Ojo, who was held by the DSS on Monday, after the alleged Assembly invasion, but was released on Tuesday, March 8, said many of the questions the DSS asked him were irrelevant and baseless: ”
“They asked me irrelevant questions at the DSS. For instance, they asked what happened to about N1.4 billion that the state received on Ado-Ifaki Road, and I told them I wasn’t aware that any such money was paid into the Ekiti State Government Account since I came into government. I said though, the President promised a refund of the money during the campaign but that I’m not aware of such money coming into our account.
“The invasion or arrest is just a plan to intimidate the government of Ekiti but it has failed woefully from the start because it lacked merit in itself. It has no iota of truth in it. Everything they asked me was based on rumour, they lacked substance and were grossly unfounded.
“Another instance is that they asked me of what we did to ecological the fund made available to the state in 2014 and I explained to them that we got about N2 billion ecological fund in 2015 not in 2014 and that the money had been appropriately utilised for its purpose in the state. I made it clear to them that no amount of money would come into the state account without my knowledge because the bank would alert me once it comes and that all that they were quoting are non-existent.
“My impression of the DSS’ invasion and subsequent detaining is that the whole exercise is just being orchestrated because we do not have any skeleton in our cupboard in the state. Our management of revenue and resources is prudent and transparent, “Ojo said. – Vanguard.
