The EFCC/DSS confrontation

NIGERIANS were left stunned and flummoxed last week when personnel of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) engaged in a fracas over the latter’s Ikoyi, Lagos office. The DSS officials stationed at the office located at Awolowo Road, armed to the teeth and deploying armoured tanks to underscore the seriousness of their resolve, denied the anti-graft officials access to the building, insisting that the facility belonged to them and that they had come to take possession of it. While the fracas lasted, the  EFCC operatives lamented their inability to provide food to the suspects under interrogation in the facility.

According to the EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, “The operatives of the Lagos command of EFCC arrived at their office on No. 15 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, this morning, May 30, 2023, only to be denied entry by agents of the Department of State Services, DSS, who had barricaded the entrance with armoured personnel carriers. This development is strange to the commission given that we have cohabited with the DSS in that facility for 20 years without incident. By denying operatives access to their offices, the commission’s operations at its largest hub with over 500 personnel, hundreds of exhibits and many suspects in detention have been disrupted.” Uwajaren added that the siege had disrupted cases scheduled for court hearing, adding that many suspects who had been invited for questioning had been left unattended. To him, “all of this has wider implications for the nation’s fight against economic and financial crimes.”

But reacting to the incident, Peter Afunanya, DSS spokesperson, said the DSS did not barricade the EFCC office in Ikoyi, adding that it was only occupying its facility. He said: “It is not correct that the DSS barricaded EFCC from entering its office. No, it is not true. The service is only occupying its own facility where it is carrying out its official and statutory responsibility. By the way, there is no controversy over No 15A Awolowo Road as being insinuated by the media. Did the EFCC tell you it is contesting the ownership of the building? I will be surprised if it is contesting the ownership. Awolowo Road was NSO headquarters. SSS/DSS started from there. It is common knowledge. It is a historical fact. There is no rivalry between the Service and the EFCC over and about anything. Please do not create any imaginary one. They are great partners working for the good of the nation. Dismiss any falsehood of a fight.”

In a prompt response to the incident, President Bola Tinubu ordered the secret police to vacate the office in contention, adding that if there were issues between the “two important agencies of government,” they would be resolved amicably. It is indeed unfortunate that these two agencies could engage in such disgraceful conduct capable of putting the security and safety of their neighbourhood and, by implication, the larger society in jeopardy. Yes, there may have been issues over the property but why engage in a show of force instead of resolving them amicably? Did the DSS and EFCC operatives stop to think for once about how the inmates locked up at the facility, those who had come there to secure the bail of their relatives or friends and those doing business in the neighbourhood must have felt seeing and hearing about the stand-off?

If government agencies could resort to such level of hooliganism, what then are they telling the public? Just how could security agencies turn a civil space into a warzone as it were? Were the armoured personnel carriers deployed during the fracas meant for a friendly chat? Such disgraceful conduct did not even happen under the military. By the way, DSS/EFCC agents are not even supposed to be seen in public as such; they are supposed to operate covertly. Surely, the spectacle of a public confrontation indicates yet again the breakdown of proper governance ethics across the whole structure of government. There are clear processes and provisions for resolving conflicts among government departments even as there are codes of conduct for government officials, particularly military and paramilitary organs. These were jettisoned and flagrantly breached as the feuding parties put up a show of shame.

We expect government not to paper over this public confrontation, but to use it to send appropriate signals. The time has come to put a stop to the embarrassing tales of public misconduct among government organs and officials. The government should carry out a deep investigation of the instant case with a view to unearthing those involved in the breaches that resulted in public altercation. It must not only make the outcome of the investigation public, it must mete out appropriate punishment to those indicted.  This way, it would have shown that it is serious about returning decency into government processes and would not tolerate shameful behaviour from officials going forward.