Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, an APC chieftain, said he was grilled for five hours by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) over his tweet on a purported meeting of a presidential candidate with some military officers.
Fani-Kayode who is the Director of Special Projects and New Media All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC PCC), said this while narrating his ordeal in the hands of the DSS on Monday in Abuja.
Fani-Kayode, also a former Minister of Aviation under former President Goodluck Jonathan, told newsmen at the APC National Secretariat that he would return to the DSS on Wednesday.
He added that he was also told to report once a week till the conclusion of investigation.
According to him, he has nothing to hide and was impressed by the professional manner in which the DSS personnel conducted themselves.
BRANDPOWER reports Fani-Kayode as saying that the five hours of grilling was an experience he would not wish even his enemy to go through.
He said that the DSS invited him to explain the Tweet he made concerning the PDP and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
“Following my tweet, the PDP called for my arrest and detention, saying Atiku never met with the military generals.
“While I was with the DSS, they were very thorough and inquisitive and very professional in their approach, they were polite, reasonable and rational.
“In spite of the ordeal, I felt I was being treated very fairly and that I wasn’t being oppressed,” he said.
Fani-Kayode also said it was clear that the DSS was not acting under any order.
He added that he regretted some of the things he said in the tweet, which according to him, sent shock waves to some individuals who got hurt by it and brought the appropriate authority to action.
“I spent about five hours. I was subjected to thorough grilling; they were very thorough and highly professional in their interrogation, and I was asked to come back on Wednesday for further interrogation.
“The place anybody wouldn’t want to go, I think is the DSS. If I were to do it a second time, I won’t tweet this same way,” Fani-Kayode said.
Fani-Kayode’s new disposition is at variance with his stance earlier on Monday when he tweeted: “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.”
Mr Bayo Onanuga, Director Media and Publicity APC PCC while reacting to the development, said they were all worried when they heard that Fani-Kayode was invited by the DSS for interrogation.
“So we contacted our lawyers and our lawyers followed him to the DSS headquarters.
“If he was detained beyond today, we would have challenged it, we would have taken further steps, but he said the DSS officials were very professional,” Onanuga said
The Department of State Services released Fani-Kayode Monday night after their session. The secret service also asked Fani-Kayode to report back to its facility on Wednesday.
Earlier on Monday, the secret service invited the Director of Special Projects and New Media of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for questioning and grilled him for about seven hours.
The APC chieftain had appeared at DSS office in Abuja to answer questions on the allegations he made about some army generals plotting with some presidential candidates to scuttle the 2023 general elections and carry out a coup against the government.
