The Ekiti State House of Assembly said on Wednesday that it has instructed its lawyers to sue the Federal Government and the Department of State Services for “the undemocratic, unpatriotic, dictatorial and brutish” detention of a member, Afolabi Akanni, for 18 days without a valid court order.
Akanni, representing Efon Alaaye in the state assembly, was released on Tuesday night in Abuja to a member of the House of Representatives from his constituency, Olamide Oni.
However, the assembly at a news briefing by the chairman of the House Committee on Information, Youths and Sports, Chief Olugboyega Aribisogan, claimed the DSS did not contact any stakeholder to intimate them of the release of Akanni and, therefore, demanded an unreserved apology.
It claimed that Akanni was dumped in an unnamed private hospital by the DSS after 18 days in illegal detention.
“Up till this moment, we have not been told officially by the DSS whether or not Honourable Akanni was formally released from incarceration after spending 18 days without access to his doctors, lawyers and family members.
“However, preliminary information available to us suggests that Honourable Akanni may have been brought to the hospital by men of the DSS and abandoned there because they could no longer hold him in captivity because of his deteriorating health condition.
“Nigerians should be reminded that it took the rumour of Honourable Akanni’s death for the DSS to admit officially that it was holding him after spending 15 days in detention without access to anyone. As we speak, Honourable Akanni is in very critical condition and he has not been able to speak with anyone of us.
“We, therefore, demand an official explanation from the DSS as to why Hon. Akanni was abducted and held incommunicado for 18 days, only for us to be told that he was admitted in a private hospital in Abuja.
“Furthermore, we demand an explanation from the DSS whether in a democracy, it is part of its mandate to disobey court orders and dump Nigerians in detention for 18 days over unfounded allegations.
“Most importantly, we condemn strongly the DSS illegal arrest, detention and dehumanization of Honourable Akanni and we demand an unreserved apology forthwith.
“We have also directed our counsel to seek redress and damages in court, because, to us, this act of impunity by the DSS under President Muhammadu Buhari is undemocratic, unpatriotic, dictatorial and brutish,” Aribisogan said.
The assembly also alleged that the DSS had been going about sniffing about its members’ secondary school qualifications, adding, however, that they were not bothered about that.
The lawmakers advised the DSS to pay attention to the growing insecurity in the country, instead of acting as an arm of the All Progressives Congress “to pursue the evil agenda of destabilising the Ayo Fayose-led government.”
PUNCH
