Fayose: I attended Akeredolu’s inauguration for Yoruba unity, berates DSS over Gbadamosi’s arrest

Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State has said that he attended the inauguration of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State for Yoruba unity.
Fayose, Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum, said this in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, in Ado-Ekiti.
He said that he could not have done otherwise because the unity of Yoruba people was too important for anybody to play politics with.
“I see nothing wrong in attending the inauguration of an APC person in neighbouring Ondo State.
“Being a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should not stop me from attending the inauguration of an All Progressives Congress (APC) governor.”
According to him, such an occasion is a national one that well-meaning people should identify with.
‎“This is a Nigerian affair; when a governor is sworn in, we have to support him; we are talking of regional integration and unity here; Akeredolu is already one of us by virtue of his new position.
“We have to support him since electioneering has come and gone and a winner has emerged, and we have to work together in the spirit of the people of our region.
“We cannot play politics with the welfare of the people of our region; we have to support Akeredolu to make the difference.
“This is a matter of the Yoruba nation and after Nigeria, Yoruba nation comes first‎; we don’t need to play politics with the welfare of Yoruba people.”
He advised that his actions in recent times should not be mistaken for an attempt by him to dump his party, the PDP, insisting that nothing of such was in the offing.
“How can I join the APC? As you already know, I am the main issue of the APC. They don’t have my size. They are wearing `babaringa’ but they don’t have the size of my cloth,” he said.
Fayose also condemned the arrest and detention of a former governorship aspirant of PDP in Lagos State, Babatunde Olalere Gbadamosi, by operatives of the Department of
State Security (DSS), describing the arrest and detention as a
continuation of the tyranny and barbarism of the APC-led government.
The governor, who decried the unwarranted arrest of Nigerians for merely expressing themselves on social media, warned that “nothing must happen to Mr Gbadamosi because up till today, the DSS has not told Nigerians why he (Gbadamosi) was arrested and being kept incommunicado, without access to his wife and doctor.”
In a statement on Saturday by his Special Assistant on Public
Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said the DSS must begin to act responsibly by desisting from treating Nigerians as if the country was under military dictatorship, adding: “It is only in a Banana Republic that someone will honour invitation of security agency, only for him to be bundled into any available plane and moved from Lagos to Abuja without telling anyone what his offences
were.”
He called for immediate release of Gbadamosi, whom he described as a prominent and law abiding Nigerians that has contributed immensely to the economy of the country, saying; “If they have any issue with him, let the DSS charge him to court.”
The governor maintained that it was worrisome that the DSS has turned itself to an instrument of an oppressor who is more interested in bullying any Nigerian who writes on social media against the APC-led government than securing the country and its people.
Fayose, who called on the international community, especially the Amnesty International to beam its searchlights on activities of the DSS, said; “So many Nigerians are languishing in the DSS detention across the country, with many of them being detained for as long as 18 months.
“For instance, the head of Nigeria’s Islamic Movement (IMN), Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, has been in detention since December 2015, despite that the court ruled that he should be released. Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has been in detention since October 2015 while former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col Sambo
Dasuki (rtd), has remained in DSS detention since December, 2015.
“This, to me, is unacceptable under a democratic government and the international community must save Nigeria and its people from this tyranny.”