Two men, who claimed to be President Muhammadu Buhari’s private security aides, were at the weekend, arrested at the Afao-Ekiti country home of the Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose.
The duo presented themselves as staff of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and claimed to have influence over the report of the military panel set up to investigate alleged involvement in partisan politics by some soldiers and officers during the 2014/2015 governorship election conducted in some states such as Ekiti, Osun, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom.
The two men, Benedict Ola Idega and Abdulsalami Leader H. claimed that they already had the preliminary report of the military panel and that with the cooperation of the governor, they could manipulate the final report if necessary.
In a meeting with the governor, who suspected their real intentions, the duo presented what they called a photocopy of page three of the preliminary report to show that they meant business. The purported copy of the page three bore the Nigerian Army’s logo.
After turning copy of page three of the purported preliminary report, the governor gave the impression that he was satisfied with all that they said and asked them to wait in his waiting room for him to show appreciation. While they waited, he called in the Commissioner of Police and SSS Director, who in turn asked their men to move in and arrest the two men.
Special Assistant to the governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, who confirmed the incident said even though it has been established that they were impersonators, the real intention of the men was yet to be ascertained.
“We don’t want to pre-empt the security agents that are already investigating the incident. But it is certain that they have ulterior motives. We are also not ruling out the possibility of an attempt to set-up the governor, obtain money from him under false pretence or even harm him.
“Therefore, we expect that the security agencies will do their job thoroughly by ascertaining their real motives and their other accomplices.
“However, we must say that anyone thinking that report of any military panel can be used to upturn an electoral victory already upheld by the Supreme Court, which is the final destination for dispute on governorship election must be thinking of committing judicial coup d’état, which by all standard is treason.”