Of Nigeria's Department Of State Services And Human Rights Abuses

 The Nigeria's Department of State Services (DSS) was formed on June 5, 1986, by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, replacing the defunct National Security Organization (NSO). The Government of General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida formed the DSS to address the then prevailing domestic security concerns and threats, following the abortive coup detat that killed General Murtala Muhammad. 

The functions of DSS include the following:

1. Prevention and detection of internal security threats: 

The DSS was commissioned to detect and prevent crimes against Nigeria's internal security.

2. Protection of classified information: 

The DSS agency was imbued with the responsibility of protecting and preserving non-military classified matters related to internal security of Nigeria.

3. Counter-terrorism and espionage: 

The DSS has obligation to detect, prevent, and investigate threats of espionage, subversion, sabotage, terrorism, treason, sedition, and separatist agitations.

4. Protection of government officials: 

The DSS was formed and mandated to provide protective security for designated government functionaries, sensitive installations, and visiting dignitaries.

5. National security advice: 

The DSS should obligatorily provide expert advice to the Government on national security interests. 

6. Investigations: 

It should investigate crimes related to internal security.

 7. Intelligence gathering: 

The DSS is responsible for gathering intelligence and using same to secure the country. 

Unfortunately, the Nigeria's Department of State Services (DSS) has egregiously deviated from the noble responsibility that it is supposed to carry out for the security and stability of the country that it swore to protect. It has been implicated in numerous human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture, and enforced disappearances. The DSS has arbitrarily detained thousands of defenceless people, with many, including sick ones, held over five years without charge or trial. In many cases, detainees have been mercilessly subjected to torture, including beatings, manhandlings, electrocutions, and hanging, and other inhuman measures, to extract confessions or as punitive measures for alleged offences.

The DSS has been widely accused of violating human rights, including:

1. Right to life: 

DSS has been implicated in extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

2. Right to liberty and security: 

DSS has a weired tradition of practising arbitrary arrests and detentions without warrants or due processes. The DSS members play God! Their office is analogous to Heaven. They DSS operates from the lofty azures of the Earth as a colossos trampling on men's rights. They hold human lives and dignity in uttermost disregard and contempt. 

3. Right to fair trial:

 Detainees are often denied access to lawyers to enable them have enough time to deal with them hellishly. Trials are purposely delayed. They can unconstitutionally arrange trials without the knowledge of detainee's family. 

4. Freedom from tortures: 

The DSS has been accused of using torture and cruel treatment to extract confessions. They forget that someone subjected to torture can accept to be responsible for what he did not do just to be free from the tortures. What if the suspect dies in the process of being tortured? Would DSS accept that the suspect died during torture? No, it will deny. Government will quickly help to cover it.

 5. Right to human dignity: 

Detainees are subjected to inhumane conditions, including overcrowding and lack of access to medical delivery facilities. This is one of the greatest evils that DSS members are guilty of. Denial of medical cares to detainees makes them two times the agents of death. Human lives means nothing to them. This is not an accusation against them or an exaggeration. Almost everyone in Nigeria knows that this is 100% true! 

6. Right to freedom of expression: 

The DSS has from its cradle targeted journalists, activists, opposition political figures, and suppressing dissents.

7. Right to freedom of assembly and association: 

Peaceful protests are often seen as battle of Zama and met with stiff resistance, force, and illegal arrests. They always want every regime to have its way and torment the citizenry with whips of scorpion even though such obnoxious policies are contradictory to democratic principles. No matter how learned, exposed, or old they may be, members of DSS usually lack the ability to tell the Presidency or whoever it may be, that some measures and policies are alien and unhealthy to democracy and national growth, and should be jettisoned lock, stock, and barrel for effective governance. They are deaf and dumb, I mean calculated imbeciles, to the power-that-be because they do not want to loose their jobs. They prefer the welfare of their families of 3-6 persons to the welfare of over 220 million people. 

8. Right to health:

 Detainees are denied access to medical assistance. It does not matter a hoot if they die.

9. Right to family life:

 The DSS ensures that families of their victims are denied access to detained loved ones.

10. Right to justice: 

Victims of DSS human rights abuses often face impunity and lack of access to justice.

11. Right to non-discrimination: 

The DSS has been accused of targeting specific groups in Nigeria, particularly the Igbos.

12. Right to education:

 The DSS' actions have flagrantly disrupted the wheel of education in Nigeria especially for students involved in peaceful protests. It does not mean anything to them if a student's education programme is permanently hampered. For example, Chinonso Onyibe, a university final-year student, was arrested and detained unlawfully for over three years without charge or trial. The DSS killed his academic career and rendered him useless, making him a liability to the society.

13. Right to work:

 The DSS has traditionally targeted workers and trade unionists, suppressing labour rights through State's fiat. 

14. Right to participate in government: 

The DSS has interfered in politics, targeting opposition figures.

15: Right to information:

The DSS has unethically restricted access to information, including censoring the media.

16. Right to privacy: 

The DSS has been accused of surveillance and arbitrary searches.

17. Right to properties: 

The DSS has been implicated in property destruction and confiscation.

All the above human rights violated by DSS in Nigeria have been documented by local and international organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Find below examples of individuals whose rights were abused by the DSS in Nigeria:

1. Okechukwu Sochima: He was arrested in June 2016 and detained for two weeks without being informed of his offense. He was hooded and had his legs chained continuously. As far as the DSS is concerned, Okechukwu Sochima is an animal while DSS members are humans.

2. Balarabe Aminu: He is a 47-year-old engineer arrested in December 2012, and detained for 207 days without charge and trial. He was subjected to torture and coercive treatments. 

3. Chinedu Okeke: He was arrested in October 2016 and detained for 19 months without charge and trial. He was beaten to a pulp during arrest and subjected to torture as DSS normally deal with the Igbos. 

4. Amur Danlami: He is a 25-year-old student arrested in November 2014 and has been missing since then. His fanily has not been granted access to him despite a court order.

5. Sowore Omoyele: He is a pro-democracy activist arrested in August 2019 and detained for over a month without trial. He was subjected to cruel harassment and intimidation. 

6. Aminu Kubra: He's a 59-year-old trader who was arrested in March 2013 and detained for over one year without charge or trial. He was subjected to torture and had his legs chained. 

7. Graham Obichia: He's a 39-year-old electrician who was arrested in July 2016, and detained for 16 months without trial. 

8. Ikenna Eze: He's a 30-year-old trader who was arrested in August 2016 and detained for 4 months without trial. 

9. Wisdom Ezike: He was arrested by DSS in Lokoja, Kogi State, and illegally detained in Wawa Barracks till today since 2021 for attending Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's court hearing at Abuja. 

10. Kenneth Ojima: Kenneth Ojima was arrested by DSS in Lokoja, Kogi State, and unlawfully detained in Wawa Barracks till today for witnessing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's trial in Abuja. 

11. Chinedu Nwoba: The DSS arrested him in Lokoja, Kogi State, for witnessing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's court hearing in Abuja, and unlawfully detained him at Wawa Barracks till today since 2011. 

12. Igwe Sampson: He was arrested by DSS in Lokoja in 2011, Kogi State, and detained in Wawa Barracks for witnessing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's court hearing in Abuja. 

13. David Ogbonnaya: He was also among those arrested and detained at Wawa Barracks by DSS in 2021 for witnessing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's trial in Abuja. 

14. Aja Joseph: He was among those arrested and detained at Wawa Barracks by DSS for witnessing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's court hearing in Abuja in 2011. 

15. Barrister Awoke: He was also among those whom DSS arrested in Lokoja, Kogi State, and detained in Wawa Barracks for witnessing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's court hearing in Abuja in 2011. 

16. Chinonso Onyibe: The DSS arrested him with others in Lokoja, Kogi State, and unlawfully detained him since 2011 till today, for witnessing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's court hearing in Abuja. 

17. Eze Joseph: The DSS arrested him at Lokoja, Kogi State, and detained him at Wawa Barracks since 2011 till today for witnessing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's court hearing in Abuja. Mr. Aja Joseph (number 14 above) is Eze Joseph's blood brother. 

18. Okezie Fortune: He was also among those who were arrested and unlawfully detained by DSS for witnessing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's court hearing in Abuja.

19. Two drivers, including Ikechukwu were also among them. 

All these people were arrested and unlawfully detained by DSS since 2011 till today without charge or trial. This is a blatant violation of human rights and justice. When did it become a crime for a citizen of a country to witness a court proceeding going on in his own land? The list is endless. There are other victims in DSS custody undergoing torture and coercive treatments, and yet unknown to anybody. Obviously, this level of human rights abuses cannot happen in Egypt and South Africa and some other African countries. It is only here in Nigeria that citizens are killed and tormented without any government to deliver them. The international community should kindly help to effect the release of these helpless victims in DSS custody. They should also be appropriately compensated for the illegal arrest, detention, and torture meted out to them by DSS. All these empirically highlight the DSS pattern of gross human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, electrocution, and enforced disappearances. Nigerian citizens are slaves to Government and its agencies. We are in bondage here! We need immediate freedom and liberty from the pride of lions.

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 To be continued ...