The Governor-elect of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has distanced himself from the arrest of the deputy governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Hon. James Abiodun Faleke and Muhammed Audu, son of the APC governorship candidate in the election, late Prince Abubakar Audu, by the Department of State Services (DSS).
Faleke and Audu were kept in custody for about seven hours at the DSS headquarters in Abuja on Friday for yet undisclosed reasons.
The governor-elect, in a statement issued by his media office on Sunday said he never sent a petition to the DSS against the duo.
The statement, which was signed by one Jude Salau, reads: “The allegation that I sent a petition to the DSS is an absolute falsehood and nothing can be farther from the truth.
“I did not send any petition to the security department to invite Hon. Faleke. The insinuations that I might have written a petition to push for their invitation is absolute falsehood. Nothing can be farther from the truth”.
The statement noted that the DSS has proven to be a highly professional body under its present leadership and as such cannot be pushed around by any single individual or group.
“We should all strive to support the independence of our security agencies from political interference. Agencies of government related to law enforcement and judiciary must be seen as impartial in our collective desire to build a strong democracy”, the statement added.
Bello, therefore, called on members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the people to continually seek amicable resolution of issues in the overall interest of the state.
