All Progressives Congress Openly Condemn Harassment Of Dep Nat/ Sec By DSS

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 residence in Abuja by armed
DSS operatives on Friday, without producing
any arrest warrant.
.
In a statement issued in Abuja on 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.
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’’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,’’ APC said.