The Enugu professionals, therefore, called on the NSA to advise “President Tinubu to appoint a new DSS Director General who will reorganise and professionalise the service in the overriding national interest.”
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Alliance of Enugu State Professionals (AESP) has requested President Bola Tinubu and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to quickly overhaul the leadership of the Department of State Services (DSS) to restore confidence in the nation’s security apparatus.
The professionals said this on Friday in reaction to the testimony at the Enugu State Governorship and State House of Assembly Petitions Tribunal by the Deputy Director of the DSS, Yahaya Mohammed, that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate presented by Peter Mbah, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the March 18 gubernatorial election was valid.
“It is surprising that the DSS leadership has remained intact, despite all the controversial things it did under the President Muhammadu Buhari regime,” the professionals said in a statement signed by their president, Simon-Peter Nwobodo, and the publicity secretary, Matthew Eze.
“If the president could quickly change the leadership of the police force, the army, the air force, the navy and the defence staff, there is no compelling reason why he has waited all this while to do the right thing in the DSS,” they asserted.
On the testimony by the DSS top official at the Enugu State Election Petitions Tribunal, the AESP stated: “This is obviously a new low for the DSS which has in recent days lost so much dignity and relevance in the eyes of most Nigerians for the statement it issued on Maxwell Okpara, the lawyer to the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele.
“The DSS knows the certificate Mbah presented is false and forged because there is no way he would be doing the one-year national service in 2003, as Mbah claims, and at the same time be holding down a full-time job, which contradicts the NYSC rules and regulations.
“Mbah, whom the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), controversially declared the winner of the governorship election, even though the PDP lost every other poll in the 2023 general elections in the state, claims to have done his NYSC in 2003 when he was the Chief of Staff to then the Enugu State governor, Chimaraoke Nnamani.
“The NYSC Director General, Brigadier General Yasha’u Ahmed, stated on Arise Television on May 19 that the NYSC did not issue Mbah the discharge certificate with number A808297, a statement in alignment with those by the NYSC Director of Certification, Alhaji Abubakar I. Muhammadu, and the Assistant Director of Certification, Mrs Rhoda Dawa.
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“Until now,” continued the AESP, “ no Nigerian could have believed that the secret police could be so unprofessional.
“During the discredited 1983 general elections, the Nigerian Security Organisation (NSO) –which gave birth to the DSS– was so good and reliable that it testified in the governorship election in the old Anambra State that the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) rigged the gubernatorial vote in old Anambra State in favour of its candidate, Chief Christian Onoh, against Governor Jim Nwobodo of the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) who won the election fair and square.”
The Enugu professionals recalled that even in the present Fourth Republic, the DSS remained so professional that when the police authorities controversially withdrew their security to Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State, the secret police “provided full security to the embattled who was being fought viciously right from Aso Rock by President Olusegun Obasanjo and his cohorts.”
The AESP, therefore, called on the NSA to advise “President Tinubu to appoint a new DSS Director General who will reorganise and professionalise the service in the overriding national interest.
“The appointment will show that Tinubu is his own man rather than someone perpetually indebted to the current DSS DG for whatever favour the latter might have done him during the election.”