Two residences of former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and interim deputy national secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Malam Nasir el-Rufai were yesterday invaded by operatives of the State Security Services (SSS).
While they stormed the first house in Mambilla Street in Aso Drive at 12 noon, they arrived at the second home in Madeira Street, Maitama at 7pm in three taxis and two buses at 7pm. The private guards at one of the residences said the security operatives forced them into the premises and “when we resisted them they manhandled us.”
LEADERSHIP Weekend learnt that the SSS men spent an hour at the second home of the APC chief after they failed to track him down in the Aso Drive house.
Their action followed his failure to honour the SSS’ invitation to him to report at the agency’s office over alleged declaration that there would be violence in 2015 if the elections were manipulated.
The team of armed SSS men stormed the house at noon yesterday and cordoned off the entrance.
In a swift reaction, the leadership of the APC condemned the action, describing it as “harassment and a shameful overkill” for the SSS to have stormed el-Rufai’s residence with its armed operatives without producing any arrest warrant.
In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its interim national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC expressed shock that the SSS was seeking to arrest el-Rufai for merely exercising his constitutional right to free speech.
When the security agents arrived in the house, they did not meet el-Rufai as he was said to have gone to pick his children from their school.
Mr Olumyiwa Adekeye, special assistant to el-Rufai on media and publicity, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that his boss was being hunted for his statement that “if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies do not ensure the conduct of a free and fair elections in 2015, there will be violence”.
“It was as a result of this expression of personal opinion that the SSS summoned him on Thursday to their office today (yesterday) to make further explanations. Of course, he turned down the invitation and asked them to come to his house if they needed him for any explanation or, better still, go to court to obtain a warrant of arrest on him,’’ Adekeye stated.
Several efforts were, however, made to get the SSS speak on the development, but to no avail. Calls, text messages, including a visit to the director of media at the SSS Headquarters, Marilyn Ogar, did not yield any result. Up until press time, Adekeye insisted that his boss’ whereabouts were unknown as attempts to reach him on phone failed.
El- Rufai had stirred the hornet’s nest last November when he was sighted in Awka during the Anambra State gubernatorial election. His presence in the state raised much apprehension and curiosity.
“Mallam Nasir el-Rufai has always been hunted. He was faulted for visiting Anambra State during their gubernatorial election, not minding that he is a chieftain of one of the major parties that fielded a gubernatorial candidate for that election. That case is in the court in Awka. It is the same people that are also after him now,’’ Adekeye alleged.
APC 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,’’ it 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 Awka during the Anambra governorship poll last November’’. The party 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”.
In a reaction to the DSS’ action, former aviation minister Mr Femi Fani-Kayode said: “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. 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. El-Rufai was simply counselling 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 freedom of speech.
We’ve no confidence in APC leadership – Shekarau, Bafarawa
The intra-party crisis in the APC took a worsening dimension yesterday when two former governors and founding members of the APC, Ibrahim Shekarau and Attahiru Bafarawa, met in Sokoto and declared that they no longer have confidence in the leadership of the party.
They said their position was informed by the failure of the APC hierarchy to act on issues which were tearing the party apart.
The duo who spoke shortly after hours of closed-door meeting in the residence of Attahiru Bafarawa in Sokoto stated that 90 per cent of global crises were triggered by loss of confidence in leadership.
Shekarau told journalists after the meeting that he could not imagine why six months after APC was registered no single Nigerian could produce an evidence of his membership of the party.
The development, according to him, was contrary to their initial plan of the original 89 members who founded the party to within three months of its registration by INEC begin membership registration and conduct its congresses and convention.
When asked the reasons for the recent consultation across the country by some members of the legacy parties which formed APC, Shekarau said: “Our consultation and discussion is centred on the way towards addressing some of the pressing issues in the party.
Kano, Sokoto, Kwara, Adamawa and other states have written to the national leadership of the party concerning the injustices embarked upon, yet there was no response. We wrote again jointly and there was no response. In fact, 250 members equally wrote to the national leadership on the same issue, yet there was no response. Therefore, we are not happy that they have not taken step to address our grievances.”
He continued: “A few months ago, we were calling the PDP evil, and now we are calling on the same set of people we called evil to come and join us.”
When asked whether they would defect or form a new APC, he said, “We are not bothered by any accusation,” adding that ”when you challenge a leadership, you will be accused of working for somebody. But, we are more than being a stooge.”
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