Terrorists, armed groups, insurgents and other violent criminals troubling parts of the country will be wiped out before the 2023 general elections, the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) Yusuf Bichi, stated on Monday.
Bichi disclosed this during a meeting with the leadership of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in his office in Abuja.
The DSS DG said his optimism comes from the increased tempo and progress made by security agencies in the fight against terrorism, armed banditry, kidnapping and other manifestations of insecurity.
He explained that the Service has been up to task in surveillance, intelligence gathering, detection, prevention and arrest of persons whose actions pose danger to public or national security.
He also revealed that security agencies had covered impressive mileage and called on members of the “public to be patriotic by being alert to their civic responsibilities of vigilance, law abiding and supportive of efforts of security agencies in the war against criminals and criminality,” noting that, ‘‘the cooperation of citizens is very critical in checking the menace of bad eggs in the society “.
The DSS boss emphasised the role of the political parties, their candidates and supporters in ensuring peaceful, issue- based campaigns, and not to stoke the “embers of insecurity, anarchy and violence by whipping up divisive sentiments of religion, ethnicity, regional and other fault lines”.
On his part, the National Chairman of IPAC, Yabagi Sani, said the visit was informed by the “rising and frightening “ incidents of insecurity in parts of the country which he noted, must be contained “very urgently and comprehensively” in order to stave off the palpable danger posed to the nation’s progress on the path of democracy.
He further expressed IPAC’s apprehension, adding that “beside the calamities of death, disruption of the nation’s economy and the devastating social dislocations presently on the rampage across the country, the monstrous phenomenon of insecurity palpably portends the capacity of reversing the gains Nigeria has made in the entrenchment and consolidation of democracy by aborting the coming elections in 2023″.
Yabagi further called on the DSS to be engaged in fighting crude oil theft, which he noted, “has reached an alarming proportion that is frightfully threatening the very foundation and survival of the country”.
Making reference to reports of a daily loss of about 400, 000 barrels of crude oil by the country as a result of activities of thieves, Sani observed that, the loss “ of such a humongous source of income, inevitably has a tangential impact on the economy.
“The criminals responsible for the massive stealing in the oil industry are known to the government and the relevant security agencies” and thus the appeal by IPAC to the DSS to, as a matter of national exigency, embark on a frontal campaign of cleansing the rot in the oil sector by going for the unpatriotic elements and their foreign collaborators that are bleeding and asphyxiating the country.”
Accordingly, the IPAC Chairman urged an urgent review of the strategies and approach of security agencies “especially, in view of the 2023 general elections that must be conducted under a secure and peaceful atmosphere to enhance the prospects of the survival and growth of the nation’s democracy”.