CHANGE BEGINS WITH ‘INTELLIGENCE’ TOO!!!

Sometime in August 2016, Nigerians woke up to the news that three Citizens have been declared wanted by the Nigerian Army in connection with the Boko Haram and Chibok saga. Surprisingly, two of the three wanted persons reside within kilometres of the Nigerian Army Headquarters. To cap it off, One of the wanted persons reported to the Nigerian Army that evening only to be told to report the next day. The rest is history......

In the last twenty-four hours or thereabout, the Nigerian media has gone agog with another bizarre news. There was a co-ordinated, simultaneous, 'osama bin laden-esque, abbottabad-style' invasion across the federation. One would have thought however that the operations were to capture Abubakar Shekau, instead Nigeria's secret service (SSS) went on rampage arresting high ranking judicial officers. The SSS has subsequently released a statement explaining and justifying its actions.

Unsurprisingly, as is always the case, the war against corruption has been used as a cover for suppression of perceived political enemies by the APC-led administration. The SSS has done the usual by subjecting political opponents to 'Trial by press release'. A summary of the DSS' press release shows that:

1. The judges were raided based on allegations of corruption and professional misconduct.

2. The judges were invited and diligence was exhibited by the DSS

3. The raid was botched in a certain state by the governor.

4. Money was recovered from the judges.

5. There are preparations to arraign them in the court.

While the sugar-coated press release seems to justify an actual diligent, transparent anti-corruption campaign, informed analysis shows that it is another full-fledge assault on yet another independent arm of government in order to undermine its activities.

1. The mandate of investigating and prosecuting corrupt practices.

The Service in its press release, said that its action is in line with its core mandate. For starters, let’s revisit the core mandate of the SSS.

As spelt out in the National Security Agencies (NSA) Decree No. 19 of 5th June, 1986:

(i) The prevention and detection in Nigeria, of any crime against the internal security of Nigeria;

(ii) The protection and preservation of all non-military classified matters concerning the internal security of Nigeria; and

(iii) Such other responsibilities affecting the internal security within Nigeria as the Armed Forces Ruling Council or the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, as the case may be deemed necessary.

Also in 1999, in order to give the service more bite and reposition it for greater efficiency, Alhaji Abdulsalami ABUBAKAR (Gen./rtd) in exercise of his powers as President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by virtue of Instrument No. 1 of 1999 relating to the general duties of the SSS as set out in Section 2-(3) of the decree’s objectives, the SSS at this point, was mandated to carry out the following functions amongst others :

(i)         Prevention, detection and investigation of:

(a)        Threat of Espionage;

(b)        Threat of Subversion;

(c)        Threat of Sabotage;

(d)        Economic crimes of national security dimension;

(e)        Terrorist activities;

(f)        Separatist agitations and inter-group conflicts;

(g)        Threat to law and order

(ii)        Vetting of:

(a)        Prospective appointees to public offices;

(b)        Vital and sensitive corporate organizations before their incorporation in Nigeria and continuous covert monitoring of their activities to ensure that they are in line with national security interest;

(c)        Applicants for Nigerian nationalization and naturalization in Nigeria;

(iii)       Provision of timely advice to Government on all matters of National security interest; and

(iv)       Profiling etc.

[Culled from THE ROLE OF THE STATE SECURITY SERVICE (S.S.S.) IN COMBATING OF MONEY LAUNDERING AND COUNTER FINANCING OF TERRORISM IN NIGERIA-OBA ADETUNJI,MSI]

Though I am not a lawyer, I couldn’t find any line or paragraph alluding to 'investigation and prosecution of corrupt practices' in the SSS' mandate let alone 'CORE MANDATE'.  I would however leave the SSS to explain that to the courts since the judges will be arraigned anyway.

2. Diligence and professionalism.

The SSS also submitted that it exhibited diligence in its operations. This is laughable to say the least.

Breaking into homes of Judges with sledge hammers and beating up their family members is far from diligence except your meaning of diligence is not in English Language. Probably 'diligence' is also a word in spanish or german which fits your usage.

3. Subliminal 'PRESS RELEASE TRIAL' of the judges.

Paragraph six (6) of the DSS press release says: "Meanwhile, large amount including foreign/local currencies have been recovered. Summaries of these...." , Note the use of the word 'RECOVER’.

The oxford Advanced learners' English dictionary (Seventh Edition, pg. 1218) gives six definitions for the word ‘recover’.  For brevity, I will give the ones relevant to the subject of discuss. It says:

“- Money 3 [VN] – sth (from sb/sth) to get back the same of amount of money that you have spent or that is owed to you. SYN: RECOUP: He is unlikely to ever recover his legal costs.

- STH LOST/STOLEN 4 [VN] – sth (from sb/sth) to get back or find something that was lost, stolen or missing: The police eventually recovered the stolen paintings. Six bodies were recovered from the wreckage.”

The use of the word ‘recover’ for the money gotten from the operations is a tacit and unprofessional conviction of the judges. I am amused that the SSS said the judges will be arraigned in court. Of what use is arraignment since the SSS is sure that the money was acquired illegally. They can just sentence the judges as well.

Lastly the SSS encouraged the public to “avail the Service of any information which could assist in this drive to rid our nation of corrupt practices and tendencies”. I seriously doubt that any citizen would advise you in further acts of repression on the judiciary. I would want to point out to you that even at the peak of a clamp down on coup-plotters in Turkey, the security services did not subject its judiciary to commando-style raids.

On that note, I would advise the DSS to stop its brazen disrespect of the rule of law and the constitution. I would also advise that repression of other arms of government should be stopped as this also, “is undermining not only the Executive but the common bond of our national life”.

Abiodun Saheed OWOLEGBON-RAJI is a graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He is a freelance writer and social commentator. He can be contacted via owolegbon2006@yahoo.com and @owolegbonRAS. He writes from Lagos, Nigeria.