Arrest Boko Haram Not Dasuki, Fayose Tells Buhari

Ayo Fayose, governor of Ekiti state, says dictatorship is
returning to Nigeria with the sealing-off of the residences of Sambo Dasuki, a
retired colonel and former national security adviser.  He asked the president to put Boko Haram, and
not Dasuki, under house arrest.

In a statement issued on Friday on the two-day-old SSS siege
to Dasuki’s residence in Abuja, Fayose said the persecution of Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) stalwarts and others perceived as opposed to the All
Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government “is an ominous sign of
imminent return of dictatorship and draconian rule in Nigeria”. Continue…

Maintaining that he believed the “invasion” does not have
the blessing of President Muhammadu Buhari, Fayose said it is being done “by
some people to please the president” and asked the president to check the
excesses of those behind it.

“Democracy is already being put on trial, less than two
months that President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office… Rather than invading
homes of Nigerians and putting people under house arrest, the government should
invade Boko Haram territories and arrest the insurgents,” he said.

“President Buhari should rather keep Boko Haram under house
arrest, not opposition party members. Those heavily armed security men that
invaded Col. Dasuki’s Abuja and Sokoto homes should have been put to a better
use by sending them to the Boko Haram ravaged North Eastern part of Nigeria,”
he said.

“The president should keep the rising exchange rates of
Dollar, Pound Sterling, Euro and other foreign currencies under house arrest.
He should pay attention to governance, be guided by the rule of law and be for
everyone and for nobody as he promised when he was sworn into office.”

He advised Buhari to be magnanimous in victory, act like a
leader and father of all Nigerians instead of seeing his return to power as an
opportunity to revenge against those perceived to have wronged him in the past.

Fayose said: “Was there any invitation by the DSS to Col.
Dasuki that he refused to honour? Isn’t it worrisome that in this democratic
age, security agents could in a commando-like invade the house of a former NSA
to carry out his arrest when there is no record that he was invited and he
refused to honour the invitation, or that he resisted arrest?

“Could Col. Dasuki’s present ordeal be as a result of his
advice that the presidential election be postponed? Is this not an indication
of an impending clampdown on PDP members and other Nigerians perceived not to
be on the same page with the President Buhari-led All Progressives Congress
(APC) government?

“We in the PDP supported our party during the presidential
election like every other loyal party members should do, should this display of
support for our party and its candidate now warrant persecution by the federal
government?

“If Col. Dasuki actually committed any offence to warrant
his arrest and questioning by the DSS or any of the country’s security
agencies, shouldn’t warrant of arrest have been issued against him? Shouldn’t
he have been invited by the DSS instead of invading his houses and sealing them
off in a commando-liked manner?

“Nigerians must therefore rise against this emerging
dictatorship and save the country’s democracy from imminent collapse because
today, it is Col. Dasuki, tomorrow it can be any other person.”

He also spoke on Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy senate
president, saying the “desperate plot” to remove him from office “is dangerous
to democratic rule in Nigeria because there is no portion of the Nigeria’s 1999
Constitution that made positions of Senate President and Deputy Senate
President the exclusive rights of the political party with highest number of
senators”.

The Cable