OrderPaperToday – Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia) today narrated to his colleagues the ordeal he faced while with the Department Security Services (DSS).
Recounting his experience, Abaribe stated that on the 22nd of June he was intercepted by DSS at the gate of the Transcorp Hilton hotel in Abuja during the congress of the International Press Institute (IPI).
He reported that he was taken to their office at 11:30am and then by 5.00pm was taken to his residence for a search, where they disclosed that he was being arrested for sponsoring a proscribed organisation, the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB).
He said the search lasted for about five to six hours: “I was taken to the office of DSS about 12 midnight and now kept there. The late musician that Nigerians know very well called Fela said ‘when you are inside, you are in inside world, when you are outside, you are in outside world.”
Abaribe disclosed how he was received by former governor of Benue state, Governor Gabriel Suswam who was arrested on Tuesday while his arrest was on Friday.
Suswam told him that he had also not been told why he was arrested.
The Abia Senator then went ahead to appreciate the leadership of the Senate and Nigerians who helped in his release but that he was granted an administrative bail which means he had to appear at the DSS office every morning “but these things are going to be challenged [in court].”
Speaking on his next move, Abaribe declared that he “will continue to tell the truth, I will continue to stand by this country, I will continue to say that no person is bigger than this country.”
He reiterated this position with a quotation from the 26th President of the United States of Ameraica, Theodore Roosevelt who said ‘patriotism means to stand by the country, it does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, same to the degree to which a president stands by the country. It is patriotic to support a president if so far as he efficiently serve the country. It is unpatriotic to not to oppose a president whose fails to stand by his duty to do well for the country. And it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth whether about the president or anyone else.’
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki expressed excitement at his return and assured him that “things will be restored to normal as the issues concern you. It is one of these sacrifices we all have to make in deepening our democracy.”
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