S.S.S finally secures warrant arrest
for Nasir El-Rufai
The State Security Service, SSS, has finally
secured a warrant of arrest for the Deputy
National Secretary of the All Progressives
Congress, APC, Nasir El-Rufai, and has now
launched a man hunt for him, the spokesperson for
the agency has said.
This is even as armed operatives of the Service
again stormed a second house in Abuja believed to
belong to the former minister in their desperate bid
to arrest him.
They had earlier in the afternoon invaded his first
house in the Maitama District of the nation’s
capital, but could not find him as he had reportedly
gone to pick his children from school. They were
said to have tried to force their way in to arrest the
former minister. Continue...
In the latest siege on another property, also in the
Maitama District, the operatives were said to have
beaten up some private guards for refusing them
entry.
The spokesperson of the SSS, Marylyn Ogar,
confirmed that the operatives visited Mr. El-
Rufai’s second house to arrest him, but denied that
anyone was beaten.
“I hate cheap blackmail,” Ms. Ogar told Premium
Times on telephone. “We went to the first place,
nobody was beaten up. How will we go to the
second place and beat people up?”
She explained that the SSS got an arrest warrant
demanded by Mr. El-Rufai, but could not find him
to personally serve him the document.
“We extended a friendly invitation to him,” the SSS
spokesperson said. “He was invited honourably to
come and make some explanations about the
comments attributed to him.
“He said he wanted an arrest warrant. We have
now obtained that from a competent court and we
are wondering why he is running.
“We want to serve it on him. Or is there any
Nigerian that is above the law?
“The president has said his ambition is not worth
any Nigerian’s blood. So why will anyone else be
making provocative statements?”
The manhunt for the former minister followed his
refusal to honour an invitation from the SSS on
Thursday.
He cited his pending suit against the Service over
his detention in a hotel in Awka during the
Anambra State Governorship last November 16 as
the reason for refusing to honour the invitation.
Mr. El-Rufai also insisted on seeing a warrant of
arrest before he could go to the SSS office.
The invitation of the APC chief was in connection
with his remarks at a conference in Abuja on
Wednesday that there might be violence if the
2015 general elections were not credible.
Meanwhile, Mr. El-Rufai, in statement by his media
advisor, Muyiwa Adekeye, on Friday, confirmed
that armed SSS officials stormed his home in
Abuja following his rejection of the attempt by the
organization to compel him to report at their office
without a valid warrant.
The statement said the former minister had on
Thursday firmly told the Director General of SSS
that he would be exercising his right not to go to
the SSS offices except a warrant mandates him
and offered to meet the SSS officials in his home
or office.
“The armed invasion of his house is a clear
indication that the SSS imagines itself as an
agency immune from respecting fundamental
rights, behaviour akin to a gathering of toughs
before whom every citizen must quake,” the
statement said.
“The SSS agents did not produce any warrant to
back their invasion of his premises.
“The assault on El-Rufai’s house continues a
sorry tradition of serial violation of his rights by the
SSS which has arrested him at airports and hotels.
“The most recent was the action of the SSS in
violating his right to freedom of movement in Awka
during the Anambra elections. Without any just
cause or formal charge, the Directorate of State
Security Services (SSS) had unlawfully detained El
Rufai, the Deputy National Secretary of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) at the premises of
Finotel Hotel, Akwa, Anambra State, from the 15th
day of November, 2013 to the 16th day of
November, 2013.”
The statement said during the period, Mr. El-Rufai
was not only restricted to the hotel, he was denied
access to his congregational prayer as a devout
Muslim, and kept incommunicado without access
to anyone and or the press.
It stated that in order to remedy the flagrant
violation of his fundamental rights as enshrined in
sections 35, 39, 40 and 41 of the Constitution, the
former minister sued the SSS, seeking eight
reliefs, including an injunction to restrain the SSS
from further infringing on his fundamental rights
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