Lawmakers of the River State House of Assembly have dragged the Director General of the Department State Services, Lawal Daura, to the Senate over alleged interference in the Rivers State Election Petitions pending before the Elections Petitions Tribunal.
It was gathered the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition has already summoned Daura to appear before it on Thursday.
The petition, written by the Rivers State House of Assembly, was dated July 23, 2015.
It alleged DSS’s meddlesomeness in the political affairs of Rivers State on the conduct of the general election in the state.
The letter to the Senate, signed by 31 lawmakers from Rivers State, accused the DSS of witch-hunting, harassment, coercion and actual intimidation of the Independent National Electoral Commission and members of the Elections Petitions Tribunal.
The letter stated: “Our protest letter is premised on the fact that we are reliably informed that the DSS had concluded plans to arrest, witch-hunt, harass, coerce and actually intimidate electoral officials involved in the conduct of the 2015 general election in River State.
“To support this assertion are the recent spate of arrest, witch-hunting, harassment, coercion and actual intimidation of Independent National Electoral Commission and members of the Election Petition Tribunal hearing election petitions from Rivers state on orchestrated and malicious ground in order to compromise their judicial independence and pervert the cause of justice.
“The Department of State Services, in a rather selective manner, invited the Resident Electoral Commissioner Rivers State and other INEC officials as well as members of the Rivers State Election Petition Tribunal for questioning with a view to directly or indirectly coercing and intimidation then into influencing the outcome of the various election petitions pending before the Election Petition Tribunals.”
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