The Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has condemned the alleged inhuman treatment being meted out to a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supporter, Mr Aborisade Sunday, and three other teachers detained by the Department of State Services (DSS).
The governor said that it was wicked to have allegedly chained and beaten to stupor a supporter of PDP who has just been released after five days in DSS custody.
Announcing a reward of N50,000 per night for teachers and the PDP youth detained by DSS, Fayose said he was rewarding those detained as part of his social security scheme. He said he was doing so because of his position to protect the oppressed.
Speaking with newsmen when Aborisade visited him on Saturday at the governor’s office, after he was released, Fayose queried why an organization saddled with the protection of people will continue to oppress them for alleged political reasons.
He said: “This young man has been arrested by the DSS in the last five days. I don’t know how an organization that is supposed to protect people will continue to oppress them because they are supporting a political party. They equally warned him not to go out to tell us what he saw.
“They released him and asked him to come back on Monday. They seized his telephone. He was put in chain in the last 5 days. So also the teachers have been in their custody simply because they are supporters and sympathetic to the PDP.
” This is not the type of democracy we want. We should not go into oppression. It is only God who gives power. However because of my position to protect the oppressed, everyone detained by the DSS, from the day of detention will get N50,000 a night as compensation from government.
“This boy have been detained for five nights, he will get N250,000 from government as social security. If they like, let them continue to detain them, they will only make them richer. So all the teachers they are arresting here and there should be assured that they will get adequate compensation and we will pursue their case legally.
“They are there today, somebody else will be there tomorrow. Again, it is unfortunate that they went to Ire Ekiti to go and attack the Chairman there, that is why we are saying that this election is about to be militarised and the will of the people suppressed.
“DSS is the arrow head working with the APC. INEC must guarantee the people’s right to express themselves through the ballot.”
Aborisade who narrated his ordeal in the hands of the DSS said that he was picked up on Tuesday at the Are Babalola event centre in Adebayo area of Ado Ekiti by DSS operatives.
He said, “They detained me for five days. They put chain on my hands and legs. I cannot hear through my left ear now due to the beaten I received from them.
” They said governor Fayose has thugs and I should tell them where they are hidden and where they hide guns, but all these I don’t know anything about.
“They said one of their officials was beaten at the Afe Babalola event centre last Tuesday, but I don’t know anything about it and I didn’t beat anybody there. I had only gone there to attend the Town hall meeting with stakeholders, ” he said.
Continuing, Abosisade said: “I am a native of Ado Ekiti. I have been a member of PDP for about 20 years now. I am campaigning for Professor Olusola Kolapo of the PDP.
I was picked up on Tuesday at the Are Babalola event centre in Adebayo area of Ado Ekiti by DSS operatives and the officials beat me silly.
“The Federal Government must wade into this indiscriminate arrest, beating and intimidation of the members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State.
” If the FG failed to wade in now and check the DSS in Ekiti, people may rise against them and this may set the state on fire.
“The DSS treated me really bad because I am a member of the PDP. They are against the PDP in Ekiti but their partisan activities can put Ekiti on fire. The FG has to caution them,” he said.
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