The Department of State Security Services (DSS) has assured Nigerians that the current state of insecurity in parts of the country will be curbed and a tranquil environment ushered in before the end of the year in readiness for the 2023 general elections in the country.
The Director General of the service, Alhaji Yusuf Magaji Bichi, who gave the assurance while speaking with the leadership of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) during the week in his office in Abuja, said the optimism derived from increased tempo and the progress being recorded by the nation’s security agencies in the war against terrorism, armed banditry, kidnapping and other forms of insecurity.
This is contained in a statement issued by the Special Assistant on Media to the IPAC Chairman, Ayuba Ahmad.
Alhaji Magaji Bichi pointed out that while members of the public may not be aware of the “impressive mileage covered so far”, the security agencies have been working assiduously in collaborative efforts with the results that the various armed groups, insurgents and other violent criminals “have been severely decapitated to near position of total annihilation.”
The DSS boss stated that the Service has been alive and living to its bidding in the performance of its primary, statutory mandate of surveillance, intelligence gathering, detection, prevention and arrest of persons whose actions pose danger to the public or national security.
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While calling on the general public to be patriotic by being alert to their civic responsibilities of vigilance, law-abiding and supportive of efforts of security agencies in the war against criminals and criminality, he noted that “the cooperation of citizens is very critical in checking the menace of bad eggs in the society.”
On the specific objective and desire for a conducive atmosphere for the conduct of the elections next year, Alhaji Magaji Bichi emphasised the role of the political parties, their candidates and supporters who he said, must embark on peaceful, issue-based campaigns instead of stoking the “embers of insecurity, anarchy and violence by whipping up divisive sentiments of religion, ethnicity, regional and other fault lines.”
Earlier in his address, the National Chairman of IPAC, Engineer Yabagi Sani, said the visit was informed by the “rising and frightening ” incidents of insecurity in parts of the country which he noted, must be contained “very urgently and comprehensively” in order to stave off the palpable danger posed to the nation’s progress on the path of democracy.
According to the IPAC Chairman, the leadership of the platform for all the registered political parties in the country is very worried and concerned because, “beside the calamities of death, disruption of the nation’s economy and the devastating social dislocations presently on the rampage across the country, the monstrous phenomenon of insecurity palpably portends the capacity of reversing the gains Nigeria has made in the entrenchment and consolidation of democracy by aborting the coming elections in 2023.”
To buttress the grounds for the apprehensions of IPAC, Engineer Yabagi Yusuf Sani drew attention to the scenario where some of the terrorist bands, especially in the north of the country, are reported to have taken over and established quasi-governments in some parts of the states in the region and, “some of them have grown so strong and emboldened to the level of targeting formations and convoys of security agencies.”
He called on the State Security Department to be actively engaged in the task of fighting the menace of massive hemorrhage and thefts in the nation’s oil industry which he noted, “has reached an alarming proportion that is frightfully threatening the very foundation and survival of the country.”
Making reference to reports of a daily loss of about 400, 000 barrels of crude oil by the country as a result of activities of thieves, Engineer Yabagi Sani observed that, the loss ” of such a humongous source of income, inevitably has a tangential impact on the economy.”
He said that the criminals responsible for the massive stealing in the oil industry “are known to the government and the relevant security agencies” and thus the appeal by IPAC to the DSS to, as a matter of national exigency, embark on a frontal campaign of cleansing the rot in the oil sector by going for the unpatriotic elements and their foreign collaborators that are bleeding and asphyxiating the country.”
The IPAC Chairman said that the general dire situation of insecurity demands an urgent review in the strategies and approach of the Department of State Security and the other relevant security agencies “especially, in view of the 2023 general elections that must be conducted under a secured and peaceful atmosphere to enhance the prospects of the survival and growth of the nation’s democracy.”
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