After being questioned for close to 15 hours at the Department of State Services, (DSS) Malam Nasir el-Rufai, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, who on Tuesday willingly surrendered to the DSS regained his freedom.
El-Rufai, the current Interim Deputy National Secretary of the nation’s leading opposition party, All Progressives Congress, APC, was driven on Tuesday by Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, to the national headquarters of the security outfit at about 9.15a.m. in an ash-coloured Mercedes Sports Utility Vehicle was released at about midnight on Monday to go home.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday strongly condemned the harassment of its Deputy National Secretary, Malam Nasir El-Rufai by the DSS, describing as a shameful overkill the storming of his residence in Abuja by armed DSS operatives on Friday, without producing any arrest warrant.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Friday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party expressed shock that the DSS was seeking to arrest El-Rufai for merely exercising his constitutional right of free speech.
It 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," APC said.
Nasir el-Rufai was summoned by the DSS over his comment on the possibility of violence erupting if next year’s general elections were rigged.
However, at the DSS headquarters, only Amaechi, Ngige and El-Rufai’s lawyer were allowed to follow him into the premises of the security outfit.
Speaking to newsmen at his Maitama home before he was driven to the DSS headquarters, El-Rufai insisted he was innocent, adding that his comment about the possibility of violence erupting if next year’s general elections were rigged was based on Nigeria’s electoral history.
He maintained that his comment was in line with his freedom of speech as enshrined in the amended 1999 Constitution.
Said he: “The statement I made was based on historical fact because it happened in 1964, 1983, 2003, 2007 and 2011.”
El-Rufai said he was ready to go to court to enforce his fundamental human rights, if the need arose, adding, “we are ready to pursue the enforcement of our rights in the law court and in the court of public opinion; whoever does anything against the law should face the consequences."
Credit: Vanguard Nigeria
