This might not be the best of time for Taiwo Akerele, the immediate past Chief of Staff to the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki who resigned his appointment on Friday and has since been with Ethan Uzamereon on Saturday night by the governor.
According to reports, no fewer than 25 operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) on Sunday evening invaded the private residence of the embattled ex-CoS.
According to multiple newspaper reports, the operatives were said to have arrived the residence located off 1st Ugbor Road, GRA, in Benin, at about 5 pm in an 18-seater bus and three operational vehicles of Operation Wabaizigan.
It was gathered that a security detail to the Governor had earlier called the Personal Assistant to the former CoS, Jasper Olowojoba to come and remove Akerele’s personal belongings from his former office.
Olowojoba, who was said to have replied that he would remove the items on Monday, was however prevailed upon to come immediately.
Security men attached to the office were said to have allowed him to remove all the belongings, after which they followed him home.
Thereafter, Olowojoba was arrested after using him to search Akerele’s house.
Confirming the development in an interview with The Punch Akerele said: “They cordoned off my street, arrested all my personal staff, my security man and took away all my children’s birth certificates. They sealed my house, my life is under threat. I said I have resigned and that I shared his vision and I am still with him politically, so what else do they want from me?” he said.
But reacting, the Edo State Commissioner for Information, Mr Paul Ohonbamu, accused Akerele of attempting to blackmail the governor, saying having accepted his resignation and appointed a new CoS, Obaseki had moved on and had nothing to benefit from attacking Akerele.
Ohonbamu said, “He is the least of our worry; no one is bothered about him; the governor has moved on. To say that the governor is after him is sheer falsehood and blackmail and it shows the kind of character we are dealing with.”