The Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ) has strongly condemned the Friday invasion of the Ekiti State House of Assembly by men of the Department of State Service (DSS) which reportedly led to the abduction of the four members of the Assembly, said to have been whisked away to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. CHRSJ in a signed statement by its Executive Chairman, Comrade Adeniyi, Alimi Sulaiman, described the action as the height of State kidnapping “and it is unacceptable to the good people of the country.”

The rights group in the statement made available to newsmen in Lagos on Sunday also declared the action of the security operatives as an attempt to intimidate and force the lawmakers to sign the impeachment notice of Governor Ayodele Fayose.

“This is outrightly condemnable and has caused a great stigma for the country in the eyes of the international community as an immature and intolerable democratic nation,” the group said.

It called for the unconditional release of the Assembly members, saying that they were whisked away “with no just cause than being lawmakers of the opposition political party in the land.” It also demanded an “unreserved public apology from the Federal Government led by General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) and authority of the DSS to the good people of Ekiti State, including the State Assembly, for causing psychological trauma for them.”

Comrade Sulaiman warned Buhari “as a former Military dictator, against returning the democratic Nigeria to the dark days of military era where life was brutal and shortish,” describing the development as “shocking, evil, unconstitutional, ungodly, anti-masses, immoral, undemocratic, illegal, abomination and anathema which should not be allowed to stand by genuine democratic elements in the land.”

The CHRSJ chief noted that using State apparatus to intimidate political opponents is the height of political intolerance which is against the democratic ethos in any clime of the world, insisting that the alleged invasion and abduction of the Ekiti Assembly members “is witch-hunting, ill-conceived, infantile and politically motivated.”

According to Sulaiman, “It is shocking to hear that after uninterrupted sixteen years of democracy in Nigeria, the security operatives can still be the tool in the hands of ruling Federal

Government under the watch of General Muhamadu Buhari (rtd), for the height of political criminality and persecution against political opponents. This is a condemnable development which should not be allowed to stand the test of the time by the democrats as Nigeria will not condone the ongoing dictatorial tendencies of the present administration in the land.”

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