Basil Okoh
It actually starts with the illegality of its name, DSS, even as it is fast turning into an agency for state sanctioned brigandage and exaction.
Yusuf Magaji Bichi, Director General of the secret police has weaponized the SSS and turned it into a private army of sorts, doing far more damage to Nigeria than the infamous Mohammed Lawal Rafindadi of the NSO of old.
It was Rafindadi who developed the practice of putting everyone he didn’t like in jail and leaving them there to rot without trial. Because of Rafindadi’s bestial inhumanity, Ibrahim Babangida Government had to promulgate Decree 19 of 1986 to dismantle the NSO and break it down into three agencies of which SSS is just one.
The others are the Nigeria Intelligence Agency and the Defence Intelligence Agency. But the SSS has always breached the boundaries of the jobs the decree actually assigned to it, taking on the jobs of both the EFCC and the Defence Intelligence Agency. So now, the DSS is fast turning into an omnibus agency of state blackmail and exaction.
DSS has become the redoubt and lair of Yusuf Bichi, a place to practice his trade with his public office victims. In the case of Emefiele, DSS did exhibit brutishness without respect for the high office he occupied or show recourse to decency or the law.
Godwin Emefiele was never a fugitive from the law, neither was he on the run as DSS tried to claim. He was arrested in his own home in Lagos at past midnight. He did not turn down any invitation to the DSS and was never declared wanted. He was the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria until only a day before.
With a distracted and incurious President Muhammadu Buhari, Bichi turned the DSS into a private army of sorts, demanding the allegiance and obedience of public officials, blackmailing and wringing them dry any time they put their hands in the till.
The constitution names it the SSS but no one can be sure when it morphed into the DSS with a sinister mandate of it’s own design, but everyone is sure that the agency has mutated into a dreaded agency with powers all of it’s own creation and practice, far beyond the job that the founding decree set out for it.
During the Yar’adua and Jonathan era, it was a more civil organization, governed by professionals who were mindful of the new democratic culture being nurtured. It is obvious now that officers like Bichi could not have thrived in such civil environment which required brains rather than the jackboot and brawn.
According to Civil Service regulations, Mr. Bichi is doing the job of Director General overtime and illegally, having retired since 2016 and recalled in 2018 to unlawfully occupy the office of Director General to serve the special interests of the Buhari regime and now Bola Tinubu’s illegitimate government.
Like Rafindadi his predecessor in the NSO, Yusuf Bichi has undertaken actions which has put Nigeria in bad light as a brutishly governed nation with unspeakable atrocities as reported by human rights bodies across the world.
The abduction at midnight of Godwin Emefiele – Central Bank of Nigeria Governor suspended just a day before – from his residence in Lagos typifies the brigandage and gestapo practices of the SSS. It reminds the world of the extra-ordinary rendition of Nnamdi Kanu in Kenya, violating all the rules of law and the norms of decent society.
Everyone knows that Godwin Emefiele will not be charged to court because the stakes will be too high for a grasping and corrupt establishment. As one pundit said; “what will be revealed in court will sink Nigeria.” So why is Emefiele abducted and kept in SSS detention, away from communication, even from his lawyers?
Blackmail and extortion rules Nigeria, as every Nigerian knows. Godwin Emefiele is believed to have made so much money from his office that the personnel of the security agencies feel entitled to some of his loot. And they are going after him for “our share”.
Police and law enforcement agencies across the world undertake and complete criminal investigations before arresting a felon. Nigerian agencies without the intelligence or skill to conduct investigation or research, first arrest and lock up the suspect brazenly before starting investigation.
Without brains or facts and in pursuit of personal interests rather than justice and the public good, they bungle and compromise every case big or small. It is the reason the knowing public believes that Godwin Emefiele is just in for a big shakedown and blackmail. If he doesn’t crumble, he may face dire consequences to himself.
So let no one be deluded into thinking of any ideals of justice or public good in the abduction of Godwin Emefiele, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
@basilokoh.
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GODWIN EMEFIELE AND THE DSS
Basil Okoh
It actually starts with the illegality of its name, DSS, even as it is fast turning into an agency for state sanctioned brigandage and exaction.
Yusuf Magaji Bichi, Director General of the secret police has weaponized the SSS and turned it into a private army of sorts, doing far more damage to Nigeria than the infamous Mohammed Lawal Rafindadi of the NSO of old.
It was Rafindadi who developed the practice of putting everyone he didn’t like in jail and leaving them there to rot without trial. Because of Rafindadi’s bestial inhumanity, Ibrahim Babangida Government had to promulgate Decree 19 of 1986 to dismantle the NSO and break it down into three agencies of which SSS is just one.
The others are the Nigeria Intelligence Agency and the Defence Intelligence Agency. But the SSS has always breached the boundaries of the jobs the decree actually assigned to it, taking on the jobs of both the EFCC and the Defence Intelligence Agency. So now, the DSS is fast turning into an omnibus agency of state blackmail and exaction.
DSS has become the redoubt and lair of Yusuf Bichi, a place to practice his trade with his public office victims. In the case of Emefiele, DSS did exhibit brutishness without respect for the high office he occupied or show recourse to decency or the law.
Godwin Emefiele was never a fugitive from the law, neither was he on the run as DSS tried to claim. He was arrested in his own home in Lagos at past midnight. He did not turn down any invitation to the DSS and was never declared wanted. He was the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria until only a day before.
With a distracted and incurious President Muhammadu Buhari, Bichi turned the DSS into a private army of sorts, demanding the allegiance and obedience of public officials, blackmailing and wringing them dry any time they put their hands in the till.
The constitution names it the SSS but no one can be sure when it morphed into the DSS with a sinister mandate of it’s own design, but everyone is sure that the agency has mutated into a dreaded agency with powers all of it’s own creation and practice, far beyond the job that the founding decree set out for it.
During the Yar’adua and Jonathan era, it was a more civil organization, governed by professionals who were mindful of the new democratic culture being nurtured. It is obvious now that officers like Bichi could not have thrived in such civil environment which required brains rather than the jackboot and brawn.
According to Civil Service regulations, Mr. Bichi is doing the job of Director General overtime and illegally, having retired since 2016 and recalled in 2018 to unlawfully occupy the office of Director General to serve the special interests of the Buhari regime and now Bola Tinubu’s illegitimate government.
Like Rafindadi his predecessor in the NSO, Yusuf Bichi has undertaken actions which has put Nigeria in bad light as a brutishly governed nation with unspeakable atrocities as reported by human rights bodies across the world.
The abduction at midnight of Godwin Emefiele – Central Bank of Nigeria Governor suspended just a day before – from his residence in Lagos typifies the brigandage and gestapo practices of the SSS. It reminds the world of the extra-ordinary rendition of Nnamdi Kanu in Kenya, violating all the rules of law and the norms of decent society.
Everyone knows that Godwin Emefiele will not be charged to court because the stakes will be too high for a grasping and corrupt establishment. As one pundit said; “what will be revealed in court will sink Nigeria.” So why is Emefiele abducted and kept in SSS detention, away from communication, even from his lawyers?
Blackmail and extortion rules Nigeria, as every Nigerian knows. Godwin Emefiele is believed to have made so much money from his office that the personnel of the security agencies feel entitled to some of his loot. And they are going after him for “our share”.
Police and law enforcement agencies across the world undertake and complete criminal investigations before arresting a felon. Nigerian agencies without the intelligence or skill to conduct investigation or research, first arrest and lock up the suspect brazenly before starting investigation.
Without brains or facts and in pursuit of personal interests rather than justice and the public good, they bungle and compromise every case big or small. It is the reason the knowing public believes that Godwin Emefiele is just in for a big shakedown and blackmail. If he doesn’t crumble, he may face dire consequences to himself.
So let no one be deluded into thinking of any ideals of justice or public good in the abduction of Godwin Emefiele, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
@basilokoh.
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