Nigeria : SSS secures warrant of arrest for El-Rufai

The State Security Service, SSS, has finally secured a warrant of arrest for the Deputy National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Nasir El-Rufai, and has now launched a manhunt for him, the spokesperson for the agency has said. This is even as armed operatives of the Service again stormed a second house in Abuja believed to belong to the former minister in their desperate bid to arrest him. They had earlier in the afternoon invaded his first house in the Maitama District of the nation’s capital, but could not find him as he had reportedly gone to pick his children from school. They were said to have tried to force their way in to arrest the former minister. In the latest siege on another property, also in the Maitama District, the operatives were said to have beaten up some private guards for refusing them entry. The spokesperson of the SSS, Marylyn Ogar, confirmed that the operatives visited Mr. El-Rufai’s second house to arrest him, but denied that anyone was beaten. “I hate cheap blackmail,” Ms. Ogar told PREMIUM TIMES on telephone. “We went to the first place, nobody was beaten up. How will we go to the second place and beat people up?” She explained that the SSS got an arrest warrant demanded by Mr. El-Rufai, but could not find him to personally serve him the document. “We extended a friendly invitation to him,” the SSS spokesperson said. “He was invited honourably to come and make some explanations about the comments attributed to him. “He said he wanted an arrest warrant. We have now obtained that from a competent court and we are wondering why he is running. “We want to serve it on him. Or is there any Nigerian that is above the law? “The president has said his ambition is not worth any Nigerian’s blood. So why will anyone else be making provocative statements?” The manhunt for the former minister followed his refusal to honour an invitation from the SSS on Thursday. He cited his pending suit against the Service over his detention in a hotel in Awka during the Anambra State Governorship last November 16 as the reason for refusing to honour the invitation. Mr. El-Rufai also insisted on seeing a warrant of arrest before he could go to the SSS office. The invitation of the APC chief was in connection with his remarks at a conference in Abuja on Wednesday that there might be violence if the 2015 general elections were not credible. Meanwhile, Mr. El-Rufai, in statement by his media advisor, Muyiwa Adekeye, on Friday, confirmed that armed SSS officials stormed his home in Abuja following his rejection of the attempt by the organization to compel him to report at their office without a valid warrant. The statement said the former minister had on Thursday firmly told the Director General of SSS that he would be exercising his right not to go to the SSS offices except a warrant mandates him and offered to meet the SSS officials in his home or office. “The armed invasion … continued