DSS to clamp down on notable personalities and groups who incite a breakdown of law and order

The Department of State Services (DSS), on Friday, warned that it would clamp down on notable personalities and groups who incite a breakdown of law and order in the country.

A statement from the spokesman of the Service, Peter Afunanya said in line with its mandate of detecting and preventing threats and crimes; “the Service hereby reiterates its previous warning that it will henceforth not condone unruly conducts of persons and groups that ought to know better.”

“The Service will not stand idly and watch disgruntled and aggrieved elements take laws into their hands and cause mayhem in the polity,” He added.

He said, “It will not hesitate to, within the confines of the law, decisively deal with such persons and/or groups, no matter how highly placed that may wish to test its resolve.”

He noted that Dr. Obadiah Mailafia’s recent outburst aimed at playing to the gallery and creating unnecessary tension is a confirmation of his group’s desperation to breach the peace.

He said, Mailafia, as a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and currently, a Directing Staff at Nigeria’s foremost Policy Research Institute, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, has unhindered access to government platforms.

According to Afunanya, “It is expected that he should be conversant with official information management protocols. But regrettably, he chose to cross the lines of decorum and conduct expected of a personality of his status.”

He said, “It is disappointing that he never took advantage of these to reach any of the security or related agencies to share the so-called information at his disposal.”

“This, he has agreed to be a grievous error on his part. It, however, suggests his mischief and determination to use the fake news he spewed to incite the people under his control,” Afunanya added.

He said, “It is even more condemnable that Mailafia, who had profusely apologized during his visit to the Service’s Plateau State Command for his ignoble statement, would, afterward, announce to the world that he stood by his misguided eruption.”

He further said, “The Service also wishes to warn others, who in the guise of political mobilization and supposed pursuit of group interests, engage in hostile and subversive activities, to desist forthwith from advancing their inimical and parochial causes.”

The former CBN deputy governor had on Monday during the Nigeria Info 99.3 station’s programme, ‘Morning Cross Fire’ aired at 8.30 am, alleged that the commander of Boko Haram is a governor of one of the Northern states, alleging that the group plans to instigate a civil war in the country in 2022.

He was a guest on the programme, which was examining the banditry attacks in Southern Kaduna in Kaduna State, North-West zone of the country that has left scores dead.

Following the allegation, the Department of State Security (DSS) in Plateau State on Wednesday grilled Mailafia for seven hours after which he was allowed to go home.

Also the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong, called for investigation into the matter. He maintained that the allegation was too weighty to be swept under the carpet.