During the week, the Department of State Services (DSS) in Nigeria called the attention of citizens to a ‘plot for an interim government’ in the country.
Development Diaries reports that the DSS, in a statement, said it considers the plot being pursued by ‘entrenched interests’ as an aberration that could plunge the country into an avoidable crisis.
The secret police also announced a plot by ‘political actors’ to sponsor violent protests in major cities to force the declaration of a state of emergency to disrupt the swearing-in of president-elect Bola Tinubu.
‘While its monitoring continues, the DSS will not hesitate to take decisive and necessary legal steps against these misguided elements to frustrate their obnoxious intentions’, the DSS statement read in part.
PRESS RELEASE
DSS CONFIRMS PLOT FOR INTERIM GOVERNMENT BY MISGUIDED POLITICAL ACTORS
— Department of State Services (DSS) (@OfficialDSSNG) March 29, 2023
But many Nigerians, based on comments on social media, wonder why some political actors have not been interrogated by the DSS over what appears to be inciteful comments.
Ethnic-related violence marred the 2023 general election, with some politicians making threats and getting away with them.
For instance, Musiliu Akinsanya, better known as MC Oluomo, appeared to have threatened to harm Igbo people living in Lagos State but there is no evidence that the DSS or the Nigerian police invited him for questioning.
Similarly, a spokesperson for the Bola Tinubu Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, has been seen to be supporting injustice and attacks on the Igbo.
Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics. Let there be no repeat in 2027. Lagos is like Anambra, Imo, any Nigerian state. It is not No Man’s Land, not Federal Capital Territory. It is Yoruba land. Mind your business. pic.twitter.com/8LO6QNq6cb
— Bayo onanuga (@aonanuga1956) March 18, 2023
Following the first statement, Onanuga made another tweet saying he is not apologetic for his hurtful words.
For his part, the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Datti Baba-Ahmed, said in a television interview that swearing in Tinubu as president is ‘ending democracy’ and a clear violation of the 1999 constitution, with supporters of the president-elect calling for his interrogation.
The DSS is mandated to prevent, detect and investigate threats of espionage, subversion, sabotage, terrorism, separatist agitations, inter-group conflicts, and threats to law and order in the country.
However, Development Diaries finds the statement issued by the DSS on 29 March, 2023, strange.
For example, the DSS ought not to be telling Nigerians that it ‘supports the president and commander-in-chief in his avowed commitment to a hitch-free handover and will assiduously work in this direction’.
The secret police are already empowered and mandated to protect and defend the country against domestic or internal threats. So the talk about ‘support’ should not arise.
The interim government plot is condemnable and anybody thinking about that should perish it. Also, people have a right to peacefully protest and to go to court if they have issues with the outcome of the elections.
We, therefore, call on the DSS to instead inform Nigerians about actions that have been taken against the identified ‘key players’ and not deny any law-abiding citizen the right to peaceful assembly.
Photo source: Channels TV
