Femi Falana, an attorney and human rights activist, has requested that the Department of State Services (DSS) free Wale Adedayo, the suspended chairman of Ogun State’s Ijebu East Local Government Area, after he accused Governor Dapo Abiodun of misusing local government funds.
Adedayo accepted an invitation from the security agency on Friday, at which point DSS detained him.
The DSS has kept the local government chairman incommunicado without providing an explanation for why he has been detained for more than 48 hours since Friday.
In response, Falana recalled that Adedayo had been asked by the DSS’s Ogun State Command to react to a petition that the Ogun State Government had sent to the agency.
“In the aforementioned petition, it was alleged that Mr. Adedayo had instigated widespread acts of public disturbance and chaos in Ijebu East Local Government,” Falana added.
Despite Adedayo’s denial of the accusation, the DSS “has decided to detain him due to his refusal to withdraw the allegation levelled against Governor Abiodun,” the official stated.
Falana continued by advising the governor to file a libel lawsuit against Adedayo.
He reminisced, noting that previous governor Segun Osoba had sued the Punch Newspaper for defamation of character in 2001 and that late governor Olabisi Onabanjo had sued the National Concord newspaper for libel in 1981, adding that “both governors won the libel suits.”
Falan said: “Given the facts and circumstances of this particular case, I feel compelled to request that Mr. Adedayo be immediately released from custody by the Ogun State Command of the SSS.”
