The Ekiti state governor, Ayodele Fayose has accused the Federal Government of using the Department of State Services (DSS) to protect Temitope Aluko, secretary of the Ekiti chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), from facing trial.
It will be recalled that a magistrate court in Ekiti had ordered the immediate arrest of Aluko over allegation of perjury levelled against him by the state government.
Aluko had told journalists in Abuja that the last governorship election in Ekiti was rigged in favour of the PDP claiming that the former President Goodluck Jonathan released $37 million for the election.
According to him, Musiliu Obanikoro, former minister of state for defence, was the one who brought the money.
Subsequently, the DSS invited Aluko to its headquarters in Abuja, where he was quizzed. But Fayose has described the interrogation as “the use of an agency of government to prevent somebody that has breached the law of the land from prosecution”.
The governor said the recent confessions of his estranged ally contradicted his earlier claims when he stood as a witness for the PDP from the tribunal to the Supreme Court.
“To Aluko and his sponsors, he is a whistle-blower; one thing we are sure of is that the whistle will eventually explode on Aluko’s face as well as the faces of his sponsors,” read a statement issued on Fayose’s behalf by Idowu Adelusi, his chief press secretary.
“Aluko is the one who said he saw white and that the white has now turned black. Nigerians are demanding that he should be brought to the open to explain what he said and maintained up to the Supreme Court level has changed.
“He testified under oath at the tribunal, Appeal Court and even the Supreme Court, and he came out again to recant. A vital arm of government, the judiciary, issued a valid order for his arrest and prosecution and that was widely publicised, but surprisingly, the federal government is using the DSS to frustrate that by pretending to be interrogating him and shielding him from facing trial.
“Democracy is hinged on separation of powers sand the rule of law so that nobody or arm of government would become the all-in-all. Those who are in authority now should know that others have been there before them and if their predecessors had turned everything upside down, what would they have met?
“If Aluko and his sponsors are sure of their allegations, let them release him for trial in the open court. The people of Ekiti State who voted overwhelmingly for Fayose and the PDP are ready to defend the mandate they freely gave.
“Every attempt they have made to rubbish the mandate have always failed, including this Aluko plot and nobody should use an agent of government to cover the shame some people willingly brought on themselves by chasing shadows.”