On July 21, 2014, SSS operatives apprehended the head of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign and ex-minister of education, Oby Ezekwesili, at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport in Abuja.
She was about to fly to London to make a report concerning the on-going hostage crisis of abducted and since missing Chibok girls. Oby Ezekwesili has been opposing against the weak strategy of then-President Goodluck Jonathan in rescuing the Chibok girls.
The SSS representatives later denied apprehending the BBOG campaigner, but Ezekwesili told they did the apprehension deliberately, “acting on orders from above” to make her miss the flight to London, and narrated her ordeal with the SSS operatives in details.
Seven months ago the Australian negotiator, Stephen Davis, who unsuccessfully tried to free Chibok girls, has issued a statement, accusing the State Security Service of working together with Ali Modu Sheriff, one of the alleged Boko Haram sponsors.
In his statement Davis accused the SSS of arresting the alleged framers of the Ali Modu sheriff and are now backing the ex governor and doing his billings.
Davis wrote: “the SSS has arrested people who have been supporting girls who have been kidnapped, raped and abused but managed to escape from Boko Haram camps and is interrogating these young men in order to intimidate the general population and ensure Sheriff is free to continue his sponsorship of Boko Haram.”
The SSS, in turn, accused Stephen Davis of blackmailing the Borno state ex-Governor Ali Modu Sheriff and several other Nigerian top officials, whom Davis described in his statements as sponsors of the Boko Haram sect. However, the SSS officials failed to provide any evidence to their own accusations as well as Ali Modu Sheriff failed to sue Davis in court despite Davis himself dared Sheriff to sue him to prove whose allegations are true in the courtroom.
Ahead of recent elections in Nigeria the SSS spokesperson Marilyn Ogar has made at least three highly controversial and politically biased statements unconfirmed by facts.
Marilyn Ogar linked some unspecified members of the APC to Boko Haram without showing any evidence.
In an effort to discredit the APC’s victory in the Osun state governorship election, Ogar alleged that the party had tried to bribe her with 14 million naira.
She also made claims that #BringBackOurGirls is a campaign affiliated to terrorists.
The jailbreak of several Boko Haram detainees on March 30, 2014, can be considered one of the major flops in the history of the SSS.
The inmates managed to disarm guards in the most closely guarded State Security Services facility in Abuja near the presidential villa.
The incident caused panic in Abuja, resulting in the four-hour gunfight in which all twenty one Boko Haram suspects were shot dead.
Two SSS operatives were also critically wounded. A 32-year-old man Yusuf Siyaka aka Ciaxon who tweeted live photos of attempted jailbreak at the SSS headquarters on March 30, was later illegally detained for 12 days by the SSS officers, claiming he was paid to tweet the sensational images. He was released later uncharged.
On November 21, 2014, Lagos data centre of the All Progressives Congress was invaded by operatives of the Department of State Service and soldiers without the search warrant.
25 data agents and three security guards were arrested. The security officials insisted that the service received a petition that the building was being used to clone INEC voter card, which forced them to check the information. The APC strongly denied the accusations, demanding apologies from the SSS.
However, on December 2, 2014, the security officers raided the APC office once again, breaking the court order, forbidding the operatives to seal off the data centre.
President Muhammadu Buhari has replaced the Director General (DG) of the Department of Security Services (DSS), Ita Ekpenyong yesterday.
The President appointed Lawal Daura as the new DG of the DSS.l
