Help, My Life Is Under Threat, Obaseki’s Ex-CoS Cries Out

…DSS operatives seal official residence after search …Arrest domestic 

…He’s trying to blackmail the governor, Information commissioner reacts 

Taiwo Akerele, ex-Chief of Staff to Edo Governor, Godwin Obaseki, who resigned on Saturday, has cried for help saying his life is being threatened.

Akerele spoke on Sunday evening as operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) in Edo State sealed his personal residence located at off First Ugbor road, Benin.

According to reports, the operatives were said to have arrived the residence located off First Ugbor Road, GRA, in Benin, at about 5 pm in an 18-seater bus and three operational vehicles of Operation Wabaizigan.

The DSS operatives also arrested his Personal Assistant, Jaspa Olowojoba, his other domestic staffers including a security man.

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.

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.

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.”

Akerele resigned on Saturday morning on personal differences with the Governor who he said was sidelining him in running the state.

After which he was replaced with 38-year-old Osaze Uzamere, the Governor’s Executive Assistant and son of Senator Ehigie Uzamere, who represented Edo South Senatorial District between 2007 and 2011.