Embattled former Secretary of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP in Ekiti State, Dr Tope Aluko, said yesterday that he had spent 26 days in the nets of the Department of State Services, DSS, police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC following petitions that greeted his revelation of how the 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State was allegedly rigged.
Aluko, who told journalists in Ado Ekiti yesterday that he remained a PDP member and state secretary, said the petitions from the All Progressives Congress, APC against him, culminated in his invitation from the security agencies.
He said: “It is APC that is writing petition against me over this issue which I trashed out on Channels Television recently. They wrote petition against me and I have stayed 12 days with DSS, five days with police and five days with the EFCC. So I’m actually on bail from these security operatives.
“During the interrogations, they asked me so many questions and as truthful as I can be, I gave them the answers, because I said I wanted to do restitution and that is what I’ve done,” he said.
Aluko had on television early in the year, alleged that the state governor, then as PDP governorship candidate, got $37 million to use the military to rig the said election which returned him as Governor of the state.
Aluko said: “The APC has been writing petitions against me and it came as a rude shock to me when the state government said that I’m Judas. They (those in the government) are the Judas anyway, because they betrayed me. I am still a member of the PDP”.
But the state governor insisted that Aluko “is the present-day Judas of Ekiti State”, saying: “The man is a Grade A scammer who is living large on the millions he is making from his present anti-Fayose agenda.”
The Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communications, Lere Olayinka, said in a statement that “Aluko has turned himself into a tool in the hands of the APC.
He stated: “Aluko and his likes can continue to run from pillar to post, all their efforts will come to naught and like the Biblical Judas, we will all live to see how those he treating him like their man Friday now will dump him.”
The governor’s spokesperson said it was laughable that someone who was duly expelled from the PDP was still claiming to be member of the party, saying; “Can Aluko be member of PDP by force even when PDP has said he is not wanted?”
He said: “In saner climes, Aluko, who by himself confessed to have committed crime should be in jail by now. But because the APC Federal Government is willing to use even Shina Rambo to achieve its aim of returning to power in Ekiti through crude means, Aluko is being provided with security cover and that is unfortunate.”
Meanwhile, the three members of Ekiti State House of Assembly whose whereabouts were declared unknown in the wake of the alleged invasion of the House by DSS on March 4 rejoined their counterparts yesterday.
The three lawmakers, Hon. Sina Animashaun, Musa Arogundade and Badejo Anifowose, it was disclosed, went underground to avoid unnecessary arrest, following the arrest and detention of their colleague, Hon. Afolabi Akanni.
At a news conference addressed in Ado Ekiti by the Speaker, Kola Oluwawole and Chairman, Assembly Committee on Information, Gboyega Aribisogan, the Assembly said: “The three members and some governor’s aides had to go into hiding when it became obvious that the DSS was desperately after them too” The Assembly also issued an order to its members not to honour any invitation from the men of DSS henceforth.
