By Dapo Akinrefon

Ekiti State House of Assembly has described the claim by human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), that the Department of State Services, DSS, lacked both the moral and legal rights to carry out the probe of alleged involvement of members of the House of Representatives in budget padding, as another display of his selfishness and political hypocrisy, asking why he (Falana) supported the DSS invasion of the Ekiti State House of Assembly and arrest of a member of the House, Hon. Afolabi Akanni. if he knew what he said.

Falana had said that there was no legal backing for the DSS to investigate budget padding, which he described as “a straight forward case of economic crime”, noting that the agency, by virtue of National Security Agencies Act, was strictly limited to the “preservation and detection within Nigeria of any crime against the internal security of Nigeria.”

He had also questioned the DSS’ recent arrest and detention of the principal officers and administrative staff of the Zamfara State House of Assembly for attempting to commence an impeachment proceeding against Governor Mohammed Yari on grounds of alleged corrupt practices.

However, Chairman of the Ekiti State House of Assembly Committee of Information, Hon Gboyega Aribisogan, who reacted to Falana’s position in a statement issued on Monday, said; “Falana should be ashamed that he gave tacit support to the DSS when the agency engaged in illegalities in Ekiti, his home state, and now elects to complain when the same DSS extended its illegalities to the House of Representatives and Zamfara State House of Assembly.

“The question that Mr Femi Falana (SAN) needs to answer is whether he just realised that the duty of the DSS according to the National Security Agencies Act, is strictly limited to the preservation and detection within Nigeria of any crime against the internal security of Nigeria.