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.”
Earlier, Mr. Mike Ejiofor blamed Independent National Electoral Commission over talks of an interim government.
According to him, if INEC had conducted a free and fair election, no one will talk about interim government.
Recall that on March 29, 2023, the DSS made a statement saying that it had acquired information on “concerted efforts by some misguided politicians” to prevent the scheduled May 29 swearing-in of president-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by imposing an interim government.
Some of the dissatisfied presidential candidates were also accused of “heating the polity” by inciting nationwide rallies and legal action to get “frivolous injunctions,” according to the statement.
Ejiofor responded to the warning during an interview on Thursday’s episode of “Democracy Today” on African Independent Television, where he claimed that INEC’s failure to deliver a free, fair, credible, and transparent election on February 25, 2023 would have eliminated the need for an interim government.
He said “If INEC had delivered on its promises to Nigerians, the country would not be in the midst of a crisis right now. They said they would transmit the presidential election results in real time from the polling units to the IReV (INEC Result Viewing Portal), but this did not occur. My reasoning for this is that there were numerous violations, and if you examine the results, it is clear that Atiku Abubakar did not win.
“We saw how some people were canceling results and transmitting altered figures. How can this work? We have also heard some prominent lawyers express fears and doubts about the country’s judicial system, which is often seen as the last hope of the common man.”
