The Department of State Services, Nigeria’s spy Police, on Friday, reiterated its warning against plans to subvert the country, the second in a little over two weeks.
It said the comments this week by Dr. Obadiah, a former deputy governor of the central bank that a serving governor is a commander of the Islamist Boko Haram group, is one of such moves.
DSS recalled that on 27th July, 2020, it alerted the nation about desperate efforts by some notable personalities to use their exalted positions, and take advantage of developments in the country and cause a total breakdown of law and order. It also revealed that part of the orchestrations was to engage in divisive acts as well as use inciting statements to pit one group against another.
“With latest occurrences in the country, Nigerians may have no reason to doubt the Service’s earlier pronouncement. Dr. Obadiah Mailafiya’s recent outburst aimed at playing to the gallery and creating unnecessary tension is a confirmation of his group’s desperation to breach the peace,” DSS said in a statement issued Friday by its spokesman, Dr. Peter Afunanya.
Mailafia told a radio station in Lagos this week that he had been informed by repentant Boko Haram fighters that a northern governor is a commander of the deadly group, whose members had spread across all parts of Nigeria. The group also plans to carry out civil war in Nigeria in 2022, he added.
Faulting the economist, DSS argued that as a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and currently, a Directing Staff at Nigeria’s foremost Policy Research Institute, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, has unhindered access to government platforms. It is expected that he should be conversant with official information management protocols, the secret service agency argued.
“But regrettably, he chose to cross the lines of decorum and conduct expected of a personality of his status. It is disappointing that he never took advantage of these to reach any of the security or related agencies to share the so called information at his disposal. This, he has agreed to be a grievous error on his part. It, however, suggests his mischief and determination to use the fake news he spewed to incite the people under his control.
“It is even more condemnable that Mailafiya, who had profusely apologized during his visit to the Service’s Plateau State Command for his ignoble statement, would, afterward, announce to the world that he stood by his misguided eruption,” it said.
It also warned others who in the guise of political mobilization and supposed pursuit of group interests, engage in hostile and subversive activities, to desist forthwith from advancing their inimical and parochial causes.
DSS warned that it would not “stand idly and watch disgruntled and aggrieved elements take laws into their hands and cause mayhem in the polity”.
“In line with its mandate of detecting and preventing threats and crimes against the internal security of Nigeria, the Service hereby reiterates its previous warning that it will henceforth not condone unruly conducts of persons and groups that ought to know better.
“In this regard, it will not hesitate to, within the confines of the law, decisively deal with such persons and/or groups, no matter how highly placed, that may wish to test its resolve. It will, nonetheless, continue to support participatory democracy in the country and therefore urges all players to abide by the rules of the game.”
The Service implored law-abiding citizens to go about their normal businesses without fear. It assured them of protection and pledged to strengthen existing measures designed to achieve this objective.