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Former Deputy Nationwide Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has accused the Division of State Service (DSS) of metamorphosing into intelligence arm of the ruling occasion All Progressives Congress (APC).
Frank, in a press release on Tuesday in Abuja, mentioned the DSS urgently wants a complete overhaul, including that the safety company ought to get up and restore the misplaced confidence Nigerians have in its management.
On the latest actions of the DSS, the political activist accused the organisation of monitoring after which leaking phone conversations of some opposition politicians as a way to embarrass them and to impress the APC parts.
Frank, who’s the United Liberation Motion for West Papua (ULMWP), Ambassador to East Africa and Center East, mentioned the DSS has the proper to intercept illegal communication however to not leak personal conversations that aren’t beneficial to the ruling occasion.
In line with Frank, the primary obligations of the DSS as acknowledged in its enabling Act embody counter-intelligence, inner safety, counter-terrorism, and surveillance in addition to investigating another sorts of severe crimes in opposition to the state.
“The Division of State Companies or the State Safety Service wants an entire and whole overhaul. The company which was established by Navy President, Normal Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, was imagined to be patterned after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the USA of America or the MI5 Safety Service in the UK.
“It is usually charged with the safety of senior authorities officers, notably the President, Vice President, state governors and visiting heads of states and governments with their respective households.
“However the DSS has since deviated from its core mandate within the final 10 years by changing into a prepared device to the federal government in energy. In latest occasions, the DSS has centered extra on regime safety and fostering the curiosity of politicians within the ruling occasion and their allies. The DSS and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have grow to be one and the identical and it’s nearly tough to distinguish a press release written by the DSS and the APC.
“How can we clarify away the truth that the DSS has continued to faucet the phone traces and launch telephone recordings of opposition politicians and influential Nigerians essential of the federal government?
“The most recent misadventure was a leaked phone dialog between Labour Celebration Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and revered cleric, Bishop David Oyedepo, the founding father of the Residing Religion Church Worldwide, and presiding Bishop of the Religion Tabernacle in Ota, Ogun State.
“On the eve of the Presidential election, Obi and Bishop Oyedepo had a non-public phone dialog. There was no terror plot and the dialog in itself was not about the usage of violence. Obi merely requested Bishop Oyedepo to assist him persuade his congregation within the southwest to vote for him.
“Equally, a day after the Presidential election, former President Olusegun Obasanjo obtained a name from Musician, Charles Oputa professionally often called Charly Boy. Within the dialog, Charly Boy requested Obasanjo what could possibly be accomplished to cease the stealing of the folks’s mandate. Obasanjo prompt that they might protest. The appropriate to peaceable protest is assured by the structure.
“Personal discussions are what they’re: personal. Part 37 of the 1999 Structure expressly states: ‘The privateness of residents, their houses, correspondence, phone conversations and telegraphic communications is hereby assured and guarded.”
The Bayelsa born activist descrived the latest leaked telephone conversations as extremely unprofessional and smacks of partisanship.
“It’s worrisome when essentially the most subtle safety company within the nation descends into the world of politics as a way to favour the ruling occasion.
“How can we clarify it that the rapid previous DG of the DSS, Musa Lawal Daura, was a member of the APC and his successor, Yusuf Bichi, additionally has apparent ties with the ruling occasion? His son, Abba, is a member of the APC who overtly helps Bola Tinubu on social media. His spouse, Aisha, bought the present Kano Governor-elect, Abba Yusuf, arrested final 12 months following a confrontation between them on the VIP lounge gate of the Aminu Kano Worldwide Airport. Sure, Abba is a citizen who’s free to help any candidate of his alternative. However he’s not an strange son, he’s the son of the DG of the boss of the DSS whose actions or inactions would have large ramifications for the nation.
“Why have the phone conversations of Bola Tinubu and his minions by no means been leaked? Why is it solely the phone conversations of opposition politicians which might be being shared with journalists or posted on social media? It’s apparent the place Bichi’s loyalty lies. He seeks to be retained as DSS DG and is now attempting to ingratiate himself to Tinubu by bootlicking.
“Beneath Bichi’s SEE the DSS has strayed from its core mandate and metamorphosed right into a city crier as an alternative of a stealthy intelligence company. The company has grow to be flippant, garrulous and loquacious. It spends extra time making noise somewhat than gathering intelligence.
“Virtually on a weekly foundation, the as soon as revered company churns out insipid and unintelligent press releases. Whereas their counterparts in international international locations are concerned with extra noble and heroic acts, these are a number of the DSS headlines as portrayed within the Nigerian media “DSS invitations Chidi Onumah for sporting Biafra T-shirt”; “DSS cautions in opposition to violence and hate speech”; “DSS reiterates name in opposition to violence in Nigeria”; “DSS says there’re plans to incite spiritual violence throughout the nation”; “DSS says some outstanding individuals plotting to destabilise the nation”; “DSS uncovers plot to destabilise Nigeria”.
Continued, he mentioned: “The most recent misadventure of the DSS is one other false alarm about plans to foist an interim authorities on the nation and to additionally perform nationwide protests. The nationwide protests started in varied components of the nation instantly the consequence was introduced so this isn’t the product of intelligence gathering. Additionally, the DSS ought to have made arrests if certainly it had uncovered a plot to foist an interim authorities.
“The company additionally confirmed its disdain for the rule of legislation by warning the judiciary in opposition to making “frivolous orders”. What qualifies as a frivolous court docket order? The DSS is clearly a lawless organisation which selects which order of presidency to obey or disobey therefore the a whole bunch of Nigerians being detained illegally in its varied centres.
“The final time I checked, the overthrow of the federal government in Nigeria is treason and attracts the utmost penalty. So why has the DSS determined to announce a plan to overthrow a authorities when the headline needs to be ‘DSS arrests XXX for tried coup?’
“With the APC in charge of the Federal Authorities, the legislature and at the least 22 states for the time being, the APC is the one which has the facility to foist an interim authorities and never the opposition which doesn’t even management the police. With the DSS making insinuations that the opposition are behind this plan, tt is clear the DSS is taking part in a Nollywood script, a fictional plot with an uninteresting finish.
“The sort of frivolity that DSS is preoccupied with whereas Nigerians are imperilled by insecurity provides a brand new cadence to the cliché of political authority performing like Emperor Nero – fiddling whereas the nation burns. They’ve slaughtered professionalism on the altar of politics. Nigerians have grown bored with the DSS crying wolf when there may be none.
“Within the final eight years, extra Nigerians have been killed and kidnapped by bandits greater than another time in Nigeria’s historical past in case you take away the civil struggle interval of 1966 to 1970. In line with out there information from the Nigeria Safety Tracker (NST), a challenge of the Council on International Relations’ Africa programme which paperwork violence in Nigeria, no fewer than 50,000 Nigerians have been killed on Buhari’s SEE.
“However you’ll hardly see the DSS defending the lives and dignity of normal Nigerians. All of the so-called secret police are preoccupied with is hounding those that make their paymasters uncomfortable. Simply right this moment, April 4, 2023, bandits kidnapped 10 college students from Authorities Day Secondary College in Kachia LGA of Kaduna. The DSS by no means noticed this coming as a result of they have been busy tapping the phone traces of the opposition whereas terrorists’ traces have been left to their units.
“On the SEE of the present DSS management, 1000’s of schoolchildren have been kidnapped. By UNICEF’s estimates, 11,000 colleges have been closed between December 2020 and early 2022 over insecurity, largely within the north. The DSS by no means noticed this coming.
“Prepare passengers have been kidnapped, the Nigerian Defence Academy was attacked and a senior officer killed, prisons have been attacked and over 1,000 escapees from all these assaults proceed to roam freely together with over 400 from the Kuje Correctional Centre. The DSS has not been in a position to do something.
“Abductors use the phone of their victims to contact their victims to pay ransom. The DSS has not been in a position to intercept these phone calls to disclose the situation of bandits whom Sheikh Gumi visits in broad daylight. Nonetheless, the DSS has been tremendous efficient in bugging the telephone traces of revered pastors and opposition politicians. What a disgrace!”
