DSS Invite: I’m Not Emefiele That Ran Away — Fani-Kayode Defends Coup Comment

Femi Fani-Kayode, the director of new media of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidential campaign council, has talked tough after the Department of State Services (DSS) invited him for questioning over comments he made at the weekend.

A former minister of aviation, Fani-Kayode had alleged plots to “provoke a coup d’etat” by serving military generals allegedly working in connivance with Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate.

Without any evidence, Fani-Kayode claimed in a social media post that Atiku met with the military generals on Thursday and that the meeting’s agenda was to “disrupt the (February 25) elections, destabilise the country, set us on fire, incite chaos and violence, provoke a coup d’etat and establish a new and unconstitional (sic) order” in the country.

According to him, the plan has input some “treacherous and unpatriotic technocrats” in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and a cabal.

The claims led to his invitation by the DSS.

The DSS invitation was confirmed by Fani-Kayode on Monday morning. The Director of Media and Publicity of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign council, Bayo Onanuga, subsequently announced in a tweet that the former minister was “now being interrogated by the DSS in Abuja”.

Fani-Kayode’s initial statement reads “Three days ago, on the day that I tweeted about newspaper reports alleging that Atiku was secretly meeting with Army Generals, I received a text message from someone who claimed to be a DSS officer asking me to report to them on a matter of national security.

“I dismissed the invitation because it was vague and I was not sure whether it really came from the DSS. In any case I had no intention of going anywhere unless I was formally invited.

“To my surprise I received a formal letter from them to report to their office without fail two days later, which was yesterday evening.

“I put a call through to them and was advised to take the matter very seriously and report to them on the stipulated day and time otherwise the worse may happen.

“I found it interesting that a call came from one of Atiku’s dogs for me to be arrested by the security agencies yesterday and had it not been for the fact that the DSS had actually sent a text to me two days earlier I may have thought that they were acting on the instructions of what can only be described as a hopeless and desperate presidential candidate, opposition party and PCC who are clutching at straws, drowning fast, seeking to silence those that give them sleepless nights, shivering in despair and staring defeat in the face in the upcoming presidential election.

“Clearly the DSS were not influenced by Atiku and were simply doing their job by inviting me on a matter that needs explanation and clarification and for a thorough interrogation . And of course being a responsible and law abiding citizen I will present myself before them accordingly.

“Unlike cowards like Emefiele, Atiku and their strange bedfellows I do not fear my own shadow and neither do I shiver and shake when I am invited by the security agencies.

“I always honor their invitations when properly invited because that is the right and proper thing to do.

“This is all the more so when it touches and concerns matters of national security which I take very seriously and when it involves agencies like the DSS who are professional and thorough in their methods and approach.

“I have nothing to hide and consequently I will present myself before the DSS this morning as I have been asked to do. I maintain my utter contempt for Atiku and the vermin that are around him and no matter what happens to me today or at any other time, know that as long as there is life in me I will oppose the darkness and evil that they represent.

“I am used to arrest, interrogation, detention, prosecution and so much more and have suffered these indignities on many occassions over the last 15 years.

“I have no fear: nothing moves me and only death can silence me. The most important thing now is not what happens to me but rather achieving the noble quest to ensure the election of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as our next President.

|That is the mission that we must focus on because that is the only way to save our country. I hope that I will be at liberty and free to continue to play my role in that quest but if I am not and I am detained indefinitely or till the election is over so be it.

“In such circumstances be rest assured that I will be praying fervently for Asiwaju’s victory from the inside. For the record I have said or done nothing wrong or that I should not have said or done and I stand by everything that I have said or written in the past on all issues.

“It is not a crime to express my concerns about the despicable activities of Atiku who, in my view, has a hidden agenda and who is so desperate for power that he is prepared to do anything and turn the whole country upside down in order to achieve it.”