Can Daura change the game at DSS?

NOT a few expected a change in the leadership of the Department of State Security (DSS). The DSS, under the watch of its immediate past Director General, Mr. Ekpenyong Ita, became politicised to a point where one could hardly see any demarcation between the service and the publicity organ of the erstwhile ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Through its actions and inactions, the DSS left no one in doubt that it was all out to protect the then ruling party on the one hand, and hunt the opposition on the other.

The partisan inclination of the DSS became more pronounced and daring in the run up to the 2015 general elections. The then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) got a running nose from the secret service in many ramifications. In a move to dampen the morale of the APC and its key leaders, heavily armed operatives of the DSS had sometime in 2014, invaded the Data Office of the party located in Ikeja, Lagos. Documents relating to the registration of party members and computers were forcefully taken away by the operatives. Workers at the centre, including a pregnant woman, were arrested and flown to Abuja where they were clamped into detention for several days.

While the detainees were still undergoing interrogation in Abuja, the DSS invaded the Data Office the second time within a period of two weeks. It then came up with trumped up charges, ranging from the alleged cloning of voter cards to registration of minors and uniformed personnel as party members. Reacting to the unwarranted invasion, the leadership of the APC had challenged the DSS to produce specimens of the voter cards allegedly cloned by the party. The security agency could not produce any.

The terrified workers were eventually released after about two weeks in detention. On regaining their freedom, the workers gave horrific accounts of how they were subjected to degradation and inhuman treatment while in detention. Stories were also told about how one of the DSS operatives heaped invectives on one of the detainees. Narrating her experience, the female worker described how the said DSS official accused her of treachery. She had quoted the operative to have said: “You are an Ibo woman and you are working for the APC instead of supporting your own brother”. The “brother” here, as allegedly stated by the said DSS official, apparently referred to the former President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP.

The now embattled spokesperson of the DSS, Ms. Marilyn Ogar, in cahoots with the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, took partisanship to frightening heights. In their desperation, subtle attempts were made to implicate the APC in the mildness terrorist acts ravaging the land. For instance, in one of their joint media briefings under what they termed the Information Managers’ platform, they claimed that security agencies had discovered an identification card belonging to a member of the APC at the site of one of the numerous Boko Haram bombings in a Northeastern part of the country.

Apparently, the “Information Managers” were trying to paint a scenario primed towards depicting the then opposition party as having links with the Boko Haram insurgents. This was in tune with the PDP’s initial escapist approach to the ravaging insurgency, with its often repeated allegation that the APC was sponsoring the Boko Haram sect. But the falsehood, with its short legs, could not travel far. Just as they could not prove the allegation of cloning of voter cards, they equally failed to substantiate that allegation.

Also at reference were revelations by the now self-exiled Army Captain, Sagir Koli, detailing the collaborative role played by operatives of the DSS in ensuring the victory of the PDP in the June 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State. Contents of an audio recording leaked by the fleeing Army Captain and which went viral in the social media, revealed details of the rigging plot in what later became the Ekitigate. The audio recording revealed conversations among some key PDP chieftains who claimed to be carrying out a directive from the then President Jonathan and some military chiefs who claimed to be working on the instruction of the Chief of Army Staff.

In an interview granted an online portal, Saharareporters, Captain Koli had given graphic details of how operatives of the DSS worked in collaboration with the military and other security agencies to undermine the integrity of the election. In the said interview, Captain Koli had corroborated the reported cases of harassment, intimidation and arrest of some key APC chieftains before and during the election.

The department played a similar role in the Osun State governorship poll that held in August 2014. Hundreds of hooded and heavily armed operatives of the service were deployed in the state in what many saw as an attempt to replicate the Ekiti scenario in Osun. Some key APC chieftains, including a former Osun State governor, Chief Isiaka Adeleke, were similarly manhandled and harassed by the operatives. Some were physically assaulted, while some others had their homes invaded by armed operatives shooting sporadically at their premises.

The harassment and intimidation, however, failed to achieve the envisaged outcome as the APC eventually won the election, scratching its way through the security barricades. So in the immediate past dispensation, the DSS conducted itself as an armed wing of the erstwhile ruling party.

When the Presidency last week eventually announced the appointment of Alhaji Lawal Musa Daura as the new helmsman of the armed secret service, many heaved a sigh of relief. Daura was born in Daura town, Katsina State on August 5, 1953. He attended the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, from 1977 to 1980. He started his career in the State Security Service (SSS) now DSS in 1982. He was once the Deputy Director, Presidential Communication, Command and Control Centre at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, between 2003 and 2007.

He also served as the State Director of State Security at various times in Kano, Sokoto, Edo, Lagos, Osun and Imo states. He attended various professional courses within and outside the country. Daura also attended the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, (NIPSS), Kuru. He rose to the rank of director before he retired from the service of the department.

The urgent task before the new DSS boss is no doubt enormous.  He is evidently confronted with the challenge of rebuilding a service already sullied by the dirt of politicisation and parochial tendencies into a vibrant, efficient and highly professional force that it had always been known for.

Those who know Daura believe he fits the bill.  Will he deliver? Time will tell.