Lagos State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday condemned what it described as unwarranted arrest and brutalization of one of its chieftains and former governorship aspirant, Babatunde Olalere Gbadamosi, by operatives of Department of State Security (DSS) over an undisclosed issue.
The party made the condemnation through its spokesperson, Mr. Taofik Gani, saying it was yet to know the “whereabouts of the kidnapped or arrested chieftain,” but only knew that “some men identified as DSS officials forced their ways into the chieftains compound at about 1am, ransacked his home and assaulted all who cared to know reasons for his arrest at that odd hours.”
“We give the DSS reasonable period of 48 hours to release Gbadamosi and cease from further harassment of our members, failure which we shall expose the new Fascist roles of the DSS to the world,” the PDP warned.
The party said the arrest of Gbadamosi, who is a nephew of late Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi, a former minister and co- chairman, Lagos@50, had confirmed its intelligence report from within the security agencies that the DSS and some other government agencies had their lists of some Lagos State PDP members and supporters whom they planned to arrest between now and June.
It said such arrests were being planned “under various false allegations, with a view to silence us or disorganise our strategies for the council polls now slated for June this year.”
“We are crying out to the world to ‘Save Our Soul’. We are no more safe in our own land. The security agencies have been mandated to go after us and harass us, unless we stop criticising the APC government.
“This arrest of Gbadamosi is unwarranted. He has not been mentioned in any of the alleged stolen funds. He has only been speaking out for the masses. He is not a government contractor,” the PDP said.
While saying that the DSS had obviously become a bully and set out to harass, arrest and liquidate PDP chieftains and their businesses, the party, however, vowed that, “We cannot be cowed, rather we shall be more dogged, resolute and our skin thickened against this APC led disgraceful DSS and government.”
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