Leaders of the Southern and Middle Forum, have condemned what they described as the ‘clandestine’ moves by a cabal in the Presidency to remove the Acting Director General of the Department of Security Service (DSS), Matthew Seiyefa, adding that the attempt is an extension of President Muhammadu Buhari’s clannishness.
The leaders in a statement issued on Sunday warned against the politicization of the security outfit and urged President Buhari to, as a matter of national importance, call his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari to order by withdrawing the intolerable directive he issued to the Ag DG of the DSS and allow the agency to run professionally.
Although President Buhari is in China to attend the summit of Forum of China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), a source said Kyari has ordered Seiyefa to reverse some key decisions he took and stop implementing new measures unless otherwise directed from the presidency to do so.
Seiyefa however, was said to have ignored the directive of the Chief of Staff, stressing that he does not take orders from Kyari but the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, under whose office the DSS is structurally placed.
The statement, signed by Yinka Odumakin – South-west; Senator Bassey Henshaw – South-south; Chigozie Ogbu – South-east; and Isuwa Dogo – Middle Belt, noted that President Buhari had defied all protestations from well-meaning Nigerians in making appointments into all key and sensitive security positions in sectional and kiths and kins affairs in a very insensitive and you-can-do-your-worst manner, adding that until the recent sack of Lawal Daura 16 out of 17 Service Chiefs were from his corner of the country .
The Forum said that the “clannishness, sectional proclivity and exclusive handling of the nation’s security architecture by President Buhari in the last three years has raised some genuine concerns.”
The leaders added that the plot to remove Seiyefa as Acting DG will come with consequences of further alienating sections of the country by the administration, particularly the Niger Delta where the Acting DSS boss hails from and the South-west whose only representation on the DSS management has now been reversed.
The Forum said in the statement that the rest of the country has tolerated the insensitivity of President Buhari in handling the country’s security architecture in the last three years with equanimity even as they emphasized that it may be necessary not to overstretch it by removing the Acting DG and stopping the professional reorganization in the DSS because it is not in tandem with the ethnic domination script of the President.
The Forum further said it is equally not lost on the Sothern and Middle Belt that since President Buhari returned from his holidays in London, he has not made a comment on the invasion of the National Assembly by the DSS in his absence, which led to the Acting President rightly removing the former Lawal Daura as DG, thereby confirming speculation that he is not happy with the removal.
“The plot to remove the Acting DG is said to be hinged on the professional reorganization of the service by him which the cabal is now interpreting as removing APC elements in DSS for PDP apologists, a clear indication of the divisions this administration has caused in every facet of our life as a nation.
“Facts at our disposal however show that what the Acting DG has done is a good example of how to run a diverse polity which this administration has ignored in the last three years.
“It was said that under Daura, every need to organize the service along federal character and fill existing vacancies were ignored as he concentrated on nepotism in running the DSS and keeping a coterie of those who have retired or have passed retirement in service and many of them having nothing to contribute,” the leaders said.
The Forum added that “the Acting DG reportedly noticed that there were three other Directors from the South-south apart from himself and decided to relieve 2 of them so that a Director could be brought in from the South-west that had nobody on the management and another person from the North-west.
“There were about 40 senior officers who were due for retirement or pre-retirement leave whom he had found competent replacement for in a fair manner and according to the service rules .
“The Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari is said to have given instructions that the DG should ask all the newly promoted to go back to their previous positions, a directive that ought to have come from the National Security Adviser (NSA) if there was the need for any. Now the plot is to remove Seiyefa himself.”
“All these confirm the politicization of a purely security outfit and the denigration of all institutions by an administration that has shown scant regard for due process”, the Forum said.
Seiyefa was appointed on acting capacity, on August 7, after the sacking of the former DG, Lawan Daura, following the siege on the National Assembly. He is said to be working had to professionally reposition the DSS and make it represent the diversity of the country, which Buhari’s Chief of State, Abba Kyari was not comfortable with and is plotting to thwart the working of the DSS boss.
Innocent Odoh, Abuja
