The Department of State Services (DSS) has accused the detained convener of RevolutionNow Protests, Omoyele Sowore of plotting violence from detention.
The Spokesman of the Service, Dr. Peter Afunanya disclosed this on Tuesday when he addressed journalists at the headquarters of the Secret Police in Abuja.
“There is nothing that Sowore needs that we do not provide him. He has been using his phone and making contacts and even using it to mobilise people and call for violence and call for action against the Nigerian state, and call for destruction of the Nigerian entity.
“When you throw a stone in the market place, you sure would not know on whose head it would land. Sowore has family members in Nigeria who go to local markets, he has relatives. He has uncles and sisters. If you set a fire, of course, you may not know who will get the burns,” Afunanya said.
Afunanya said operatives of the DSS have been receiving constant threat messages from unnamed persons believed to be working for Sowore.
He said, “The DSS is a very responsible organisation and discharges its duties with utmost responsibility and accountability.
“We have standard operating procedures on the use of arms. So our staff couldn’t have used guns on any person.
“These people were not the kinds of persons that should have come forward. We have continued to receive various threats on our officers and personnel on how they would be mauled down on their streets, how they would be physically attacked.
“Sowore people, people who believed that they can harass security officer, intimidate them, sending messages to their phones and threatening that they would kill them and give them treatment they would live to regret.”
On why Sowore is yet to be released despite court orders ordering his release from custody, Afunanya said those that stood as sureties for his bail, had yet to come forward, for purposes of documentation.
“It’s not out of place that we are insisting that administrative procedures are followed and adhered to in totality, in the discharge or execution of the court order.
“There are processes that have to be followed, and we have even expressed it to the court.
“And, internationally, this is not out of place. We are a security organisation operating in Nigeria… We have to insist on global best practices in execution of our mandate. And, in doing this, the administrative procedures, and every other nature or process we need to undertake, we need to do that, and we are doing it.
We will not fail to discharge our responsibilities at all times.
“The stand of the Director-General (Yusuf Bichi) and the stand of the Service is not ambiguous about respect for justice, for rule of law and for human rights.
“…If someone has stood in for Sowore, why wouldn’t the person also come and take him and document properly. Documentation is imperative in the discharge of security duty. We saw what happened in the case of Nnamdi Kanu. He was granted a bail of this nature. He went under and the social media and the public went accusing security agencies of undermining him. Some even said he was killed by the state. But it was not true that he was killed,” he said.
