APC Presidential Campaign Protests Police Invitation Of Fani-Kayode

All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council yesterday cautioned the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) against scuttling the ongoing probe of its director of special project and new media, Femi Fani-Kayode, by the Department of State Services (DSS).

The council kicked against the invitation of the former Aviation minister by the Federal Investigation Bureau of the police on Tuesday.

Fani-Kayode was on Monday thoroughly grilled by the DSS for over five hours over a series of tweets in which he alleged that presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, was cooking up something with some high-ranking military officers.

Fani-Kayode had told journalists immediately after he left the DSS headquarters in Abuja that he could have been more circumspect and handled things differently.

In a statement by its director of media and publicity, Bayo Onanuga, the APC presidential campaign council expressed shock that despite the well-publicised invitation of the DSS and his return for further investigation, an assistant inspector general of police from the Federal Investigation Bureau has also invited Fani-Kayode for questioning.

Onanuga said, “The APC-PCC is concerned about the latest invitation by another security agency with 10 days to the election, when he is most needed as our director of New Media. While we are not questioning the authority of the police to invite our officials, we want the police to be mindful that the truth they seek to find is already being pursued by the DSS.

“They should allow the DSS to complete its investigation. Chief Fani-Kayode upon his first interview by the DSS, described the agency as ‘very professional’, in the way the operatives grilled him on a tweet accusing one of the opposition leaders of cooking something with the military authorities.

“The DSS at the meeting made it clear to him that the basis of his tweet, a newspaper report, was not correct and the panel that interviewed him on the subject matter afterward granted him an administrative bail. Fani-Kayode will have another round of grilling by the DSS today.

“We want the police to allow the investigation to go its full course so that they do not open themselves to suspicions that they were implementing an agenda scripted by the opposition. Chief Fani-Kayode is a respected Nigerian and had served his country as minister of aviation. He will be available any time to answer for his actions.”

Also, the leadership of the APC called for caution on the matter, saying it amounts to duplication of effort by coordinating law enforcement agencies for the police to invite Fani-Kayode again for investigation.

In a statement by its national publicity secretary, Barr Felix Morka, the APC said, “The invitation issued by the Nigeria Police Force to Chief Fani-Kayode to appear before them ostensibly on the same subject-matter that is already under meticulous investigation by the DSS gives us cause for concern not only on account of duplication of effort by coordinate law enforcement agencies but its possible implications for his fundamental rights.

“Chief Fani-Kayode is an upstanding and law-abiding citizen of Nigeria. He honoured the invitation by the DSS and submitted himself fully to their investigative authority, and continues to cooperate with the investigation.

“While we recognise the constitutional authority of the Nigeria Police Force to initiate and conduct criminal investigations, we urge extreme caution in this matter so as not to inadvertently lend itself to unnecessary speculation as to the rationale for simultaneous and multiple investigation into this matter. The PDP has continued to relentlessly exploit and politicize this matter that is the active subject of law enforcement investigation. That is simply unconscionable and disturbing.”