Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has described the Department of State Services (DSS) continued detention of the Managing Director of Capital Oil and Gas Limited, Ifeanyi Ubah as tyrannical, barbaric, reckless and irresponsible display of power, saying; “Within two years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) government, the DSS has become the government’s terror gang, disobeying court orders with impunity.”
The governor, who said the DSS claim that Ubah’s offence was punishable by death was reckless and alarming, added that “the DSS has now become law unto itself, dragging Nigeria back to 1984 when Decree 2 was used by the National Security Organisation (NSO) to dump Nigerians in detention without trial.”
Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, Governor Fayose expressed worry that less than two hours after a High Court in Lagos ordered the DSS to release Ubah within 48 hours or charge him to court, the DSS got another High Court in Abuja to secure an order to detain him (Ubah) for another 14 days.
He said;
“The judiciary must be mindful of being used by the DSS to sustain its regime of tyranny by granting orders allowing the service to detain Nigerians perpetually.
“Our courts should not allow themselves to becoming willing tools to promote and sustain dictatorship. They should be able to stand up against the tyrannical acts of the DSS by asking when it became the duty of the service to arrest and detain Nigerians for offences still being investigated.”
Describing the DSS as the APC-led government’s the terror gang, Governor Fayose said;
“For the first time in the history of Nigeria, DSS operating under a democratically elected government is justifying the detention of Nigerians in disobedience to court orders.
“Ridiculously, the DSS is even telling Nigerians that the head of Nigeria’s Islamic Movement (IMN), Ibrahim El-Zakzaky is being kept in detention since December 13, 2015 for his personal safety, meaning that the government is protecting El-Zakzaky by detaining him for 18 months!
“What happened to the December 2016 order of Justice Gabriel Kolawole of an Abuja Federal High Court, that the DSS shouldo release El-Zakzaky within 45 daysand that the Federal Government should provide an accommodation for him (El-Zakzaky), his wife and family members within Kaduna State or any part of the northern region?”
The governor maintained that the DSS claim that it arrested and detained Ubah for inciting members of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers Union to stop lifting petroleum products so as to cripple the economy and cause untold hardship to Nigerians was “nonsensical”, said;
“The arrest and continuous detention of Ifeanyi Ubah for alleged economic sabotage and the DSS pronouncement that the offence is punishable with death is a sad reminder of the President Buhari’s military regime.
He called on well-meaning Nigerians and the international community to rise in condemnation of “this regime of tyranny being ran be the DSS,
saying;
“When the regime of tyranny started, we raised alarm but those who should have joined us then kept silent. Today, it is Ifeanyi Ubah that they have visited with their tyranny, who knows who will be next?”
