Via Pulse...
He said members of the House read the news of the lawmaker's release online.
The Ekiti State House of Assembly has moved to sue the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Federal Government over what it calls "undemocratic, unpatriotic, dictatorial and brutish” detention of one of its members, Mr Afolabi Akanni.
The
House disclosed this to newsmen at a press conference held on
Wednesday, March 23, 2016, at the its chamber in Ado-Ekiti, the state
capital.
In his address, the chairman of the House Committee on Information, Youths and Sports, Chief Olugboyega Aribisogan, said that the DSS did not contact any stakeholder to inform them about Akanni's release on Tuesday (March 22) night.
He said members of the House read the news of the lawmaker's release online.
Aribisogan said:
“Up till this moment, we have not been told officially by the DSS
whether or not Honourable Akanni was formally released from
incarceration after spending 18 days without access to his doctors,
lawyers and family members.
“However,
preliminary information available to us suggests that Honourable Akanni
may have been brought to the hospital by men of the DSS and abandoned
there because they could no longer hold him in captivity because of his
deteriorating health condition.
“Nigerians
should be reminded that it took the rumour of Honourable Akanni’s death
for the DSS to admit officially that it was holding him after spending
15 days in detention without access to anyone. As we speak, Honourable
Akanni is in very critical condition and he has not been able to speak
with anyone of us.
“We, therefore, demand
an official explanation from the DSS as to why Honourable Akanni was
abducted and held incommunicado for 18 days, only for us to be told that
he was admitted in a private hospital in Abuja.
“Furthermore,
we demand an explanation from the DSS whether in a democracy, it is
part of its mandate to disobey court orders and dump Nigerians in
detention for 18 days over unfounded allegations. “Most importantly, we
condemn strongly the DSS illegal arrest, detention and dehumanization of
Honourable Akanni and we demand an unreserved apology forthwith.
“We
have also directed our counsel to seek redress and damages in court,
because, to us, this act of impunity by the DSS under President
Muhammadu Buhari is undemocratic, unpatriotic, dictatorial and brutish."
Pulse recalls that prior to Akanni's release on Tuesday, the Ekiti State Government had alarmed last week that the lawmaker had died in DSS custody. But the security agency dismissed the claim by presenting the legislator to journalists alive, but sick.
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