Mike Ejiofor, a former Director of the Department of State Services, DSS, has given a reason why the security agency did not arrest the Labour Party vice presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, over his recent comment.
Ejiofor said Baba-Ahmed was not arrested by the DSS because the security agency has not had any concrete evidence to invite him.
Datti had, during an interview with Channels Television, said swearing in the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on May 29 may be the end of democracy in Nigeria.
Datti’s comment generated controversy across Nigeria as some supporters of Tinubu demanded his arrest.
Speaking on the matter, Ejiofor, while appearing on Arise TV on Friday, said: “For the vice president of the labour party, I listened to his interview, and since it has gone viral, he made a personal statement which he is entitled to. But if he goes ahead, I believe that the SSS, if they have any evidence of pursuing that to its logical conclusion, action will be taken because nobody is above the law.
“In fact, this morning, as I was going through my WhatsApp messages, I also saw a similar thing attributed to the former vice-president in 2015, it was in Channels Television, Seun Okinbaloye, when he was asking a similar question when they said that they would form a parallel government then the government did not do anything.
“So why this particular one? I can tell you that the SSS would continue to monitor events as they unfold, and anybody, no matter how highly placed or how old you are, would be brought before the law. I believe the vice presidential candidate made a statement, and the SSS has not had any concrete evidence. I am expressing my opinion to have invited him; otherwise, they would have invited him.
“You recall what I told you earlier? The statement is also credited to the former vice president and the statement made by the SSS warning politicians to desist from the issue of the interim government because the interim government is not only unconstitutional, it is illegal.
So if the SSS had come to arrest either the Labour Party vice presidential candidate, you know, the conflagration it would have also brought to the country. So we manage our sensibility and see how we can handle this without compromising the standard of security.”
