A northern-based non-governmental organisation, Arewa Youth For Progress and Development (AYPAD), yesterday decried the invasion of Akwa Ibom State Government House, Uyo, by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), describing the action as “unacceptable”.
In a statement it issued in Kaduna on Friday, the group wondered why the DSS led by Lawal Daura could embark on such venture in this challenging period of the nation’s history.
The statement signed by the president and the secretary of the group, Comrade Danjuma Sarki and Usman Abdulhamid respectively, also said that the action of the DSS portends danger to the entrenchment of the rule of law and sustenance of a virile democracy in the country.
According to them, “It is quite unfortunate that the men of the secret police who claimed to be acting on intelligence report on the existence of an imaginary cache of firearms said to be stockpiled in the government house ended up destroying properties, harassing and intimidating staff and visitors in the building for several hours without finding a single weapon or stacks of cash.
“If for whatever reason there is a need to conduct such search on the government house, which is the seat of power and harbours the office and residence of the governor, who is covered by immunity by virtue of Section 308 of our Constitution, the most honourable and professional way to go was to intimate him of their intention and seek his cooperation as the chief security officer of the state, rather than engaging in a Gestapo-like operation.
“The nature of the invasion by the men of the SSS is surprising, shocking, and unbelievable”, they stated.
“It makes mockery of our democracy. We cannot fathom this crass effrontery on the privacy of the Chief Security Officer of a Federating unit of our Federation, for no just cause”, the group added.
The group however, called on the DSS to be more “professional, civilized and courteous in the discharge of their responsibility, which was its hallmark in time past”.
They also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to call the DSS to order “as their conduct is apparently projecting his administration in a bad light before the eyes of Nigerians and the International Community”.
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