The All Progressives Congress (APC) has strongly condemned the harassment of its Deputy National Secretary, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, by the Department of State Security (DSS), describing as a shameful overkill the storming of his home in Abuja by armed DSS operatives on Friday, without showing any arrest warrant.
.
In a statement inn Abuja, Friday, by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party expressed shock that the DSS was seeking to arrest El-Rufai for merely exercising his constitutional right of free speech.
.
It said there was nothing inciting or extraordinary in the statement credited to Malam El-Rufai 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,” 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 has suddenly found its agility, after playing dead when people like Chief 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,”
Support InfoStride News' Credible Journalism: Only credible journalism can guarantee a fair, accountable and transparent society, including democracy and government. It involves a lot of efforts and money. We need your support. Click here to Donate