By Hassan Zaggi
The Director General of the Department of State Service (DSS), Yusuf Bichi, has been advised to commission an urgent investigation to unravel the reasons and personnel behind the recent invasion of the premises of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), in Abuja, on Monday, December 27, 2021.
The Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), described the invasion as an attempt to intimidate and harass civil society groups in the country.
This is contained in a letter titled: ‘Intimidation & Profiling of Civil Society Groups During the Yuletide’ addressed to the Director General of the DSS by CISLAC Executive Director, on Wednesday.
“Laying siege, the operatives demanded to see the Chief Security Officer of the building. On learning about this, our initial thought was that these were individuals masquerading as DSS agents considering the fact that this was not just during the holiday period, but it was on a day declared as a public holiday by the federal government of Nigeria.
“This thought was further reinforced by the fact that there was no prior notice, invitation or pending request from your office regarding any of such visit.
“However, when we put a call through to the number dropped with our office security personnel, an individual further confirmed that he was an agent of your agency providing details of his position,” the CISLAC Executive Director said.
The letter further reads: “Sir, considering recent activities of criminals using official security covers to perpetrate wanton criminalities in the recent past, we want you to use your good office to investigate those who carried out this visit and for what purpose(s).
“We will also request that you call these operatives to order and charge them to be civil in their approach and not militarize our nascent democracy.
“At this point, we cannot jump into conclusion as to the exact reasons behind this gestapo approach; however, this kind of unprofessional visits clearly violates existential rights guaranteed by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and puts the country on a global map of ‘bad policing’ and seen shrinking voices of citizens demanding for good governance in the interest of all.
“Visits like these further feed fears that the country is gradually snowballing into autocracy with the regular abuse of powers from those parading themselves as agents of the state.
As an organization, we believe in the rule of law.
“We have complied with all statutes and thereby have not violated any law. We urge you to use your good offices to put an end to this trend of shrinking civic space and the ongoing attempt to weaken democratic institutions to which the civil society community represents an aspect.”
