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| Jonathan and Abacha |
Goodluck Jonathan has assumed a tyrannical crescendo and
moving the apparatus of state against his perceived enemies, while protecting
his own kinsmen who are renowned for criminal activities and threats, The
Clarkes and the Asari Dokubos of this world have made damaging statements
without any hunts, it has become so clear that the boyish President of Nigeria
is desperate to use power in an oppressive manner like his predecessor, Abacha
to intimidate and put his enemies behind bars
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| Mallam Nasir el Rufai |
When Asari Dokubo said
blood will flow in 2015 if President Jonathan is not re-elected, It was not a
problem to the Nigerian oppressor Is
Dokubo-asari free to say this because he is from South South and President
Jonathan is also from South South? In failing to arrest or invite Dokubo-asari
is the SSS playing President Jonathan's script by shielding Dokubo-asari? Is
this why President Jonathan helped Dokubo-asari out of police detention in
Benin Republic as claimed in some quarters? The SSS has clearly shown its
partisanship in failing to even invite Dokubo-asari. The SSS partisanship may
actually be the reason why violence will ensue in 2015 for everyone is watching
every action by SSS and Jonathan.
Reports has it that,
This is even as armed operatives of the Service again
stormed a second house in Abuja believed to belong to the former minister in
their desperate bid to arrest him.
They had earlier in the afternoon invaded his first house in
the Maitama District of the nation’s capital, but could not find him as he had
reportedly gone to pick his children from school. They were said to have tried
to force their way in to arrest the former minister.
In the latest siege on another property, also in the Maitama
District, the operatives were said to have beaten up some private guards for
refusing them entry.
The spokesperson of the SSS, Marylyn Ogar, confirmed that
the operatives visited Mr. El-Rufai’s second house to arrest him, but denied
that anyone was beaten.
“I hate cheap blackmail,” Ms. Ogar told PREMIUM TIMES on
telephone. “We went to the first place, nobody was beaten up. How will we go to
the second place and beat people up?”
She explained that the SSS got an arrest warrant demanded by
Mr. El-Rufai, but could not find him to personally serve him the document.
“We extended a friendly invitation to him,” the SSS
spokesperson said. “He was invited honourably to come and make some explanations
about the comments attributed to him.
“He said he wanted an arrest warrant. We have now obtained
that from a competent court and we are wondering why he is running.
“We want to serve it on him. Or is there any Nigerian that
is above the law?
“The president has said his ambition is not worth any
Nigerian’s blood. So why will anyone else be making provocative statements?”
The manhunt for the former minister followed his refusal to
honour an invitation from the SSS on Thursday.
He cited his pending suit against the Service over his
detention in a hotel in Awka during the Anambra State Governorship last
November 16 as the reason for refusing to honour the invitation.
Mr. El-Rufai also insisted on seeing a warrant of arrest
before he could go to the SSS office.
The invitation of the APC chief was in connection with his
remarks at a conference in Abuja on Wednesday that there might be violence if
the 2015 general elections were not credible.
Meanwhile, Mr. El-Rufai, in statement by his media advisor,
Muyiwa Adekeye, on Friday, confirmed that armed SSS officials stormed his home
in Abuja following his rejection of the attempt by the organization to compel
him to report at their office without a valid warrant.
The statement said the former minister had on Thursday
firmly told the Director General of SSS that he would be exercising his right
not to go to the SSS offices except a warrant mandates him and offered to meet
the SSS officials in his home or office.
“The armed invasion of his house is a clear indication that
the SSS imagines itself as an agency immune from respecting fundamental rights,
behaviour akin to a gathering of toughs before whom every citizen must quake,”
the statement said.
“The SSS agents did not produce any warrant to back their
invasion of his premises.
“The assault on El-Rufai’s house continues a sorry tradition
of serial violation of his rights by the SSS which has arrested him at airports
and hotels.
“The most recent was the action of the SSS in violating his
right to freedom of movement in Awka during the Anambra elections. Without any
just cause or formal charge, the Directorate of State Security Services (SSS)
had unlawfully detained El Rufai, the Deputy National Secretary of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) at the premises of Finotel Hotel, Akwa, Anambra
State, from the 15th day of November, 2013 to the 16th day of November, 2013.”
The statement said during the period, Mr. El-Rufai was not
only restricted to the hotel, he was denied access to his congregational prayer
as a devout Muslim, and kept incommunicado without access to anyone and or the
press.
It stated that in order to remedy the flagrant violation of
his fundamental rights as enshrined in sections 35, 39, 40 and 41 of the
Constitution, the former minister sued the SSS, seeking eight reliefs,
including an injunction to restrain the SSS from further infringing on his
fundamental rights.
The statement also said that he prayed the court for a
declaration that the SSS had no powers under the 1999 constitution (as amended)
or under any Nigerian law to either impose a general restriction on movement or
restrict his constitutional right of freedom of movement as enshrined in
Section 34 of the 1999 constitution on account of the Anambra State
Gubernatorial election that took place on the 16th day of November, 2013 or any
other election.
It stated that proceedings in the case against the SSS began
on January 16 at the Federal High Court, Awka, Anambra State and that one C.C.
Nwaokorie, who is the counsel for the respondents, informed the court that they
had only received the processes the previous day.
“The records of the Court indicated that that they had been
served in good time. The court adjourned to 19 February 2014 for hearing of the
matter,” the statement said.
“The SSS is advised to diligently attend to this pending
matter. Mallam El-Rufai will not be silenced. He will continue to do his
patriotic duty of challenging INEC and the security agencies to guarantee the
climate for free and fair elections in Nigeria by desisting from partisanship
and the embrace of impunity.”
Meanwhile, the APC has expressed outrage over the harassment
of its official.
In a statement on Friday, the party described the invasion
of Mr. El-Rufai’s home without any warrant of arrest as “shameful overkill.”
The party, in the statement by its Interim National
Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said it was shocked that the DSS was seeking
to arrest Mr. El-Rufai for merely exercising his constitutional right of free
speech.
It said there was nothing inciting or extraordinary in the
statement made by its official that there might be violence if the 2015 general
elections were not free and fair.
”What our Deputy National Secretary said is a statement of
fact and should not warrant any harassment, unless of course the DSS is saying
that the 2015 general elections will not be free and fair,” the APC said.
”The statement is a matter of cause and effect and amounts
to a patriotic call for the 2015 general elections to be free, fair and
credible. If this statement now rankles the DSS, then the department has a lot
of explanation to do to convince Nigerians that it was not engaging in a
witch-hunt, considering the case instituted by Malam El-Rufai against it (DSS)
over his illegal detention in a hotel in Akwa during the Anambra governorship
poll last November.”
The party said it wondered why the DSS had suddenly found
its agility, after feigning deafness when people like Edwin Clark, Asari Dokubo
and Chukwuemeka Ezeife issued a direct threat to Nigeria’s continued existence
over President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term ambition.
”The DSS is free to join the police in becoming a partisan
and compromised national institution, but it should weigh the consequences of
such action on its long-term credibility,” the APC said
Also, in a statement Friday, a former Minister of Aviation,
Femi Fani-Kayode, said he wondered what Mr. El-Rufai’s crime was that warranted
the harassment he is currently suffering.
He said the APC chieftain stated the obvious when he said
there would be violence if the 2015 presidential elections were rigged.
“It has been brought to my attention that heavily armed
operatives of the SSS have stormed the home of my friend and brother Mallam
Nasir El Rufai,” Mr. Fani-Kayode said.
“What was his crime? He stated the obvious and told the
truth- namely that if the Presidential elections are rigged in 2015 by the
ruling PDP the people would rise up and there would be terrible violence and
colossal casualties.
“As far as I am concerned he is simply stating the obvious.
It is only those that are planning to rig that have a problem with this bitter
truth.
“Nasir was simply counseling them about the natural
consequences of their intended criminal actions yet the government appears to
be hell bent on charting the course of oppression, intimidation and the
suppression of human rights, including the right to the freedom of speech.”
The former Aviation Minister said Mr. El-Rufai had sent a
strong warning and that nothing would change even if he was locked up by the
SSS.
He said, “El-Rufai has sent a strong warning and, whether
they like it or not, locking him up will change nothing.
“Whilst no-one wants violence and even though some of us
abhor it let it be clearly understood that if anyone is hurt, maimed or loses
their life as a consequence of PDP-rigging in 2015 the blame and responsibility
will lie squarely on the shoulders of President Goodluck Jonathan and his PDP
who are hell-bent on staying in power at all costs.
“It is only a weak and nervous government that has lost its
moral compass, that has no respect for human rights and that is devoid of any
conscience that behaves in this way.”
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