The All Progressives Congress says the actions of the Department of
State Service suggest that the security agency supports the Peoples Democratic
Party.
The APC, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Thursday, said it was curious that the DSS only
arrested APC leaders during the Osun State governorship election but did not
arrest a single PDP member.
The party wondered why the Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu
Obanikoro; and another PDP leader, Chris Uba, were allowed to move freely in
Osun State while only APC leaders were hounded.
The party also berated the Deputy spokesperson for the DSS, Mrs. Marilyn
Ogar, who claimed during a news conference recently that Mohammed and other APC
leaders were arrested in Osun for loitering on the eve of the election.
The party, therefore, urged Orgar, not to mislead the public
The statement read in part, “The APC has accused the DSS of crass
partisanship and unprofessional conduct over its actions and comments on the
recent election in Osun State. The spokesperson for the agency, Ms. Marilyn
Ogar, should be properly trained and given the necessary exposure so she can
speak with knowledge and facts, instead of making baseless and incautious
statements.
“It is sad that a spokesperson for the DSS does not know there is no
offence called ‘loitering’ under Nigerian laws. For her to now go on national
television to say the APC’s National Publicity Secretary was arrested for
‘loitering’ in Osogbo on the eve of the governorship election is the height of
ignorance and constitutes a great embarrassment to DSS.
“On what basis is Ogar questioning what the APC’s National Publicity
Secretary was doing in Osun when the same fellow has not questioned the
presence of Musiliu Obanikoro, Chris Uba and others in the same state or are
those people from Osun State?”
The party said by supporting the mass arrest of APC leaders and
preventing the rally by the Nigeria Labour Congress in support of Aregbesola,
the DSS has “decided to pitch its tent with the PDP instead of staying
neutral.”
It described as a tissue of lies the allegation by Ogar that a party
tried to bribe the DSS with N14m before the Osun election, wondering why the
DSS did not arrest the official who offered the alleged bribe.