Daring Fayose Attacks Buhari In Aso Rock

In his usual verbal attack on the President, the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has warned President Muhammadu Buhari to eschew any plan of declaring a state of emergency in Ekiti and Rivers states.

Governor Fayose stated this on Monday, March 21, while speaking with State House Correspondents, in Aso Rock, shortly after taking part in the economic retreat organized by the National Economic Council, NEC, at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa.

He maintained that his government is aware that President Buhari was planning a state of emergency in Rivers State over the bloody election rerun that took place over the weekend.

Recall that the All Progressives Congress, APC, had requested that President Buhari declares a state of emergency in Rivers State, in order to forestall political violence and the breakdown of law and order in the state.

“It is obvious that Governor Wike has lost control of the state. As the chief security officer of the state, his primary duty is to secure lives of the people in the state but he has failed to do this. The crisis in Rivers State could have ended if not for the unwillingness of “powerful people” in government in the state, “APC had said.

Speaking further, Fayose said if he went ahead with the plan, Buhari would be thought a lesson that power belongs to the people and not their leaders.

“They have been insinuating that (state of emergency) too in Ekiti. We have been waiting for them. Power has gone beyond the leaders; power has gone back to the people.

“You want to declare state of emergency, declare it and we will tell you that the state of emergency will not work too. This country belongs to all of us.”

He urged Buhari to sustain the legacy of free and fair elections which his administration inherited.

“The military has got no business in our election. If you watch the trend, PDP has always won all the elections after the annulment. Which means what happened in Rivers is just a service of ego of some individuals who believe they have Nigeria in their pockets and they can call the President at will to deploy the military.

“It is unfortunate that somebody would allow the military to kill his own people.

“I strongly condemn the elections in Rivers and charge that we sustain the legacy of transparent elections.

“For me in Ekiti, we learned from that and we are prepared. We prepare for election every day and we are fully prepared,” he added.

Fayose also insisted that the intimidation of members of the Ekiti state House of Assembly by men of the Department of State Services, DSS, had further confirmed what he described as the rascality of the agency of government.

He said it was unfortunate that the Federal Government would decide to look away and allow innocent Nigerians’ rights to be trampled upon.

Ekiti Assembly Invasion: We've Received Tutorial To Lie Against The DSS - Ekiti Workers Raise Alarm

Ahead of the visit of the National Assembly fact-finding committee to Ekiti State, some workers of the House of Assembly are being tutored to lie against the Department of State Services (DSS).

The Senate has raised an ad hoc committee to investigate the purported invasion of the Assembly complex on March 4 as alleged by the lawmakers, who claimed that some DSS officers shot sporadically into the air and abducted at least two of them.

But some civil servants working in the Assembly denied knowledge of any invasion by DSS officers either during the working hours or after close of work on the said day.

A source in the Assembly told our reporter yesterday that the Clerk, Tola Esan, held a meeting with some categories of staff where they were tutored to bear false witness against the DSS that the “invasion” really happened.

Those summoned to the office of the Clerk include all the 12 directors, unit heads, the sergeant-at-arm and some security men.

The source said: “It is true that the Clerk summoned a meeting in his office at about 9am yesterday and the purpose of the meeting was to coerce us to tell those coming from the National Assembly that the invasion really happened.

“We were told to tell the panel that the Assembly complex was invaded by DSS officers and that they shot into the air and left through the back of the House of Assembly Service Commission office, which is the next building to the Assembly complex.

“The fact-finding committee is due in the state either today or tomorrow. That is what they want us to tell the committee even though we know that there was no invasion at all.”

Another source said: “The information is true, that was what we were told to tell those people coming from Abuja at the meeting held inside the Clerk’s office.

“In fact, the security agencies in the House are not happy with the development because they enjoy good relationship and inter-service synergy with the DSS.

“The police, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and DSS officers are not happy with the plan to force the innocent civil servants to testify on what did not happen.

“The security men working the Assembly are not happy with the development; they were highly infuriated because they are not happy to falsely indict the DSS.

“This is politics taken too far; I want to confirm that the authorities of the Assembly have no evidence whatsoever to substantiate their claim of the purported invasion.

“They have no audio, video, photo or electronic evidence and why are they conscripting civil servants to tell lies against the DSS? The Civil Service rules clearly forbid dragging civil servants into politics.

“We should not be involved in politics and we are not interested in their politics because bearing false testimony is against the conscience of any God-fearing person.”

Source: The Nation