Civil Society Group Wants Security Agencies to Take DSS Intelligence Warnings Seriously

The Citizens Stability Forum (CSF) a civil society and citizens groups’ coalition, has called on the security agencies in Nigeria to act on intelligence provided by the Department of State Services (DSS) in containing the security threats bedevilling the country.

According to a statement jointly signed by lead convener, Mukhtar Lawal, and co-convener, John Azi the security situation in Nigeria has “exposed the lack of collaboration and synergy between security agencies in the country.”

“The most disturbing aspect is the continuous disregard to security intelligence provided by the Department of State Services (DSS) to the Military, Police and Paramilitary security agencies, something that in some countries can be treated as treasonable offence.The Department of State Services (DSS) is one of the most important arms of Nigeria’s security setup saddled with critical functions of prevention and detection of any crime/terrorism against the internal security of Nigeria and provision of timely advice to Government on all matters of National security interest among others.

“This function has made the DSS the fulcrum of intelligence gathering and sharing among sister security agencies. As such when there is inefficiency in collaboration or a lack of synergy with other security agencies the result will be that criminals and terrorists will be having a field day and will be pulling up acts of terrorism that will otherwise be impossible for them. One may then question what is the problem,” the statement read in part.

“Why is the collaboration and co-operation between the security agencies this ineffective and who is at fault and responsible for this? To answer these questions, one needs to understand the role that each agency needs to play in this security co-operation. The roles are clearly defined by Nigeria’s constitution, that DSS are responsible for security (of all sort) intelligence gathering and sharing this intelligence with relevant sister agencies while the role the other agencies is to act on such intelligence.

“Based on all relevant evidence and happenings in the country, it is very clear that the DSS has been playing its role diligently and have been feeding the relevant agencies with intelligence before the occurrence on most of the unfortunate insecurity events that recently occurred,” the statement added.

The group listed the terrorists’ attack on the Kaduna-bound train and the invasion of the Kuje Correctional Facility as instances where the security agencies have failed to heed DSS warnings.

“For example, before the Bombing, shooting and Kidnapping incident on the Abuja-Kaduna Train on the 28th of March 2022, the DSS issued a security alert about the suspicious movements and activities of terrorist elements in the vicinity of the rail lines between Rijana and Kateri to both the Military and police as well as the Nigerian Railway Corporation. Unfortunately, the disregard to such critical intelligence by relevant authorities led to the loss of lives of eight (8) Nigerian citizens, forty-one (41) hospitalised and over sixty (60) civilians kidnapped by terrorists.

“Likewise, before the terrorist attack on Kuje Prison on the 5th of July 2022 where they succeeded in releasing their colleagues. It is on record that the DSS shared 44 intelligence reports relating to this threat with relevant agencies before the attack on the prison.

“This has been proved by remarks from the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase, who stated that he went through the report, but unfortunately the relevant agencies failed to act. These are just among the few proofs that found their way to public domain as DSS does not flaunt its operations and activities to the public, rather most operations and activities are classified, and as is the norm for State and Secrete Service departments all over the world,” the statement noted.

The group commended the excellent leadership of the DSS hierarchy led by Director-General of the DSS, Mr. Yusuf Bichi.

“The DG has instilled commitment, diligence, and pro-activeness in tackling insecurity across the county. Mr Bichi has also vigorously drive improvement in welfare and wellbeing of personnel including improved and frequent payment of allowances, more investment in infrastructure in commands and formations across the country, as well as providing officers and operatives with more training and re-training opportunities. These are all geared towards creating a conducive working environment and increasing the efficiency of the workforce,” the conveners noted.