By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Like most other appointments in his 11 months
in the job, only President Muhammadu Buhari knows
why he pulled out his kinsman, Lawal Daura, from retirement and
handed him the sensitive and strategic job of director general of
the Directorate of State Securities (DSS).
That
was in July 2015, barely one month after he was sworn in as president on May 29.
*Lawal Daura |
For
a president who has confessed his love for working with those he knows and who,
despite all the positions he has held in the country – including being military
head of state for 20 months – his circle of friends is limited to his Fulani
kinsmen, Daura may well be his idea of the man who the cap fits after he sacked
Ita Ekpeyong who headed the agency from September 2010 to July 2015.
Established under the National Security Agencies Act of 1986 (Decree 19) the
DSS, also known as the State Security Service (SSS) – one of the three
successor organisations to the National Security Organisation (NSO) dissolved
in 1986 – is the primary domestic intelligence agency of Nigeria.
Before
the DSS, there was the NSO, set up in 1976 with Abdullahi Mohammed as the first
director general.
But
the NSO under Mohammed Lawal Rafindadi was broken up into three agencies by
former military President, Ibrahim Babangida, after it had been turned into a
monster used to abuse Nigerians and trample upon their fundamental human rights
by the Buhari-led military junta between December 31, 1983 and August 27, 1985.
In
appointing Daura the DG of a critical security apparatus such as the DSS, it
would seem that Buhari’s primary goal, aside consolidating power in the hands
of his Fulani brethren, is to recreate the stomach-churning 20th century secret
police used by his military junta to whip people into line in a 21st century
democratic environment.
As
scary as that is, nothing prepared me for my shock last week over the bizarre
statement credited to the DSS on the alleged abduction and killing of some
people in Abia State by
yet to be identified hoodlums.
*Buhari |
The
spy agency announced penultimate Saturday that it had discovered mass graves of
“Hausa-Fulani” residents allegedly abducted and murdered by members of the
Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in Abia State .
A
statement signed by DSS spokesperson, Tony Opuiyo, said the killings have
triggered tension among different communities in Abia.
“The
Service has uncovered the heinous role played by members of … IPOB, in the
abduction/kidnap of five Hausa-Fulani residents, namely Mohammed Gainako,
Ibrahim Mohammed, Idris Yakubu and Isa Mohammed Rago at Isuikwuato LGA in Abia State .
“The
abducted men were later discovered at the Umuanyi forest, Abia State, where
they were suspected to have been killed by their abductors and buried in
shallow graves, amidst fifty (50) other shallow graves of unidentified
persons,” said Opuiyo.
“It
is pertinent to alert the general public that IPOB is gradually showing its
true divisive colour and objectives, while steadily embarking on gruesome
actions in a bid to ignite ethnic terrorism and mistrust amongst non-indigenes
in the South East region and other parts of the country.
“Following
this act, tension is currently rife among communal stakeholders in the state
with possibilities of spillover to other parts of the country.”
This
is sheer recklessness and unbecoming of a security agency such as the DSS.
In
the first place, the agency said it discovered 50 shallow graves but identified
only “five” of the victims as Fulani herdsmen.
How
did they know that those five victims were Fulani? Were any DNA tests
conducted to authenticate their identity? Who was the fifth victim they refused
to identify by name? Who were the other unidentified 45 corpses? Were they also
Fulani herdsmen? Was it that the DSS found out that they were not Fulani and
therefore there was no need to identify them? Why did the DSS rush to press
with only four names when there were other 46 victims, presumably Nigerians?
This
claim, coming from the DSS without any proof, is not only a remarkable oddity
just in itself, it is also irresponsible and repugnant, to say the least.
But
assuming, without necessarily conceding that this allegation is true, what did
the DSS intend to achieve by issuing such a reckless statement other than
inciting the North against the Igbo and precipitating once again the 1960s-type
pogroms that culminated in the civil war?
Even
if it is true that IPOB activists, or indeed Ndigbo, conspired to kill five
Fulani herdsmen and buried them in shallow graves in a forest in Abia State,
shouldn’t the DSS device ways of calming frayed nerves and ensuring there are
no reprisal killings while also ensuring the culprits are fished out and
adequately punished?
Shouldn’t
the DSS, as part of its internal security functions, be building bridges of
understanding and ethnic harmony rather than fanning the embers of national
discord and aggravating already yawning national fissures, which is the only
goal its unsubstantiated claim will achieve?
I
have heard some people ask why the DSS lost its voice when over 300 people,
including women and children, were massacred in one night in Agatu, a rural
community in Benue State ,
by Fulani herdsmen who have been ranked as the fourth most dangerous terrorist
group in the world by the Global Terror Index.
While
that question remains germane in view of the inherent mischief in the DSS
statement, for me that begs the issue because the horror is not necessarily in
the numbers but the lack of value for human life. Every murder diminishes our
collective humanity.
But
that question is resonating because it exposes the hypocrisy of the Daura-led
DSS and gives an inkling as to why he was asked to head Nigeria ’s
secret police at this time.
A
few days ago, alleged Fulani men attacked the farm of former Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Olu Falae, and killed one of his security men.
There
was no statement from the DSS. Some weeks back, more than 70 indigenes of Enugu State who
protested the abduction of their women by Fulani herdsmen, having waited in
vain for the government to act, were arrested by security agents.
And
last Tuesday, police in Taraba State confirmed
that suspected Fulani herdsmen attacked Dori and Mesuma villages in Gashaka
Local Government Area of the state on Sunday, killing at least 15 people, even
as residents put the figure at more than 40 with several houses razed.
Unlike
what it did on Abia, the DSS is yet to issue any incendiary statement against
the Fulani herdsmen even as they have turned themselves into machine-gun
wielding outlaws terrorising all and sundry.
Most
of Daura’s actions, whether it is the insensitive and callous sacking of young
Nigerians recruited as DSS staff and had only two months to complete their
training for no offence other than coming from a section of the country, or the
invasion of Akwa Ibom State Government House in search of imaginary “dollars
and weapons,” or the invasion of Ekiti State House of Assembly, or illegal
arrest and detention of real and perceived enemies of the Buhari administration
all in the name of fighting corruption, don’t come across as actions taken in
furtherance of national interest.
Instead,
they all bear the imprimatur of Rafindadi’s NSO under this self-same Buhari.
These are actions informed by narrow ethnic and political considerations the
DSS should not be associated with.
The
DSS is to protect all Nigerians. It should not embark on the reprehensible
shenanigan of inciting one group against another or a section of the country
against others. No ethnic nationality is superior to any other in Nigeria .
Every
human life is sacred and equal premium must be placed on it irrespective of
sex, religion and ethnic origin. No group should be given the impression that
it has the licence to kill and maim others without being sanctioned by the
state, which is what the impunity of Fulani herdsmen suggests.
Sadly,
the DSS under Daura, just like the NSO under Rafindadi – all under Buhari’s
watch – is right now in a pickle. And that says much about Buhari’s lack of
transcendental national leadership qualities.
Both President
Buhari and his spy chief, Daura, must be reminded that ethnic baiting in a combustible environment like ours is a slippery slope.
*Ikechukwu Amaechi is the Managing
Director/Editor-in-Chief of TheNiche Sunday newspaper (ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com)
We are in the dawn of Fulani colonialism. Buhari is just bringing out the first items in his very large bag
ReplyDeleteMr. Lawal Daura is on a mission. So, he knows what he is doing
ReplyDeleteWith the National Bill Grazing Bill soon to be passed by the National Assembly (with the help of greedy, bribed Southerners) empowering the Fulani Herdsmen to take your land anywhere in the country, the Fulani will soon overrun and enslave the rest of Nigeria.
ReplyDelete