UNILAG AD
  • The Membership Club
  • #EndSARS Dashboard
  • PT Hausa
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
Monday, August 15, 2022
Premium Times Nigeria
  • Home
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Special Reports and Investigations
      • Health Specials
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • #EndSARS Dashboard
    • Parliament Watch
    • #PandoraPapers
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
  • Home
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Special Reports and Investigations
      • Health Specials
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • #EndSARS Dashboard
    • Parliament Watch
    • #PandoraPapers
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
Premium Times Nigeria
BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed,

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed,

APC dismisses SSS’ allegations as “hogwash”

byPress Release
January 7, 2015
Reading Time: 3 mins read
48

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has dismissed as hogwash the so-called findings of the State Security Service, SSS, following its Gestapo-like raid on the party’s offices in Lagos, saying the ‘findings’ presented to the media by the agency on Wednesday is a great disservice to Nigeria and an embarrassment to all intelligence-gathering organizations around the world.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party also described the timing of the release of the “findings” as a plot orchestrated in collusion with the PDP to distract the APC from its ongoing campaigns for next month’s elections.

It described as disingenuous, flimsy, premeditated, partisan and an irritant the conclusion that the APC had an ”articulated plan to inflate the party’s membership data as well as hack into INEC’s voter registration database through the creation of party membership forms and cards to match INEC’s voters register across the country”.

”First the DSS and the PDP said the APC was cloning Permanent Voters Cards at the raided office, without a shred of evidence. Now, after a ‘painstaking’ investigation, the DSS has found out that the APC was only planning to inflate its membership data and then hack into INEC’s database. And this is the outcome of its massive, months-long investigations?

”This would have been funny if it were not from a primary domestic intelligence agency saddled with a great responsibility. Can this wishy-washy report stand any serious scrutiny? Can any serious intelligence gathering agency anywhere else in the world take this report seriously? With these kind of findings, one can now understand why Boko Haram has continued to strike at times and places of its own choosing without any prior knowledge by our all-powerful DSS.

”Even the presentation of the report by a poorly-trained and highly-politicized spokesperson of the DSS worsened the so-called findings. Why would the spokesperson of a national agency sound like a megaphone for the ruling party, freely castigating the opposition spokesman and ”a number of uninformed members of the public”? Why does she have to go personal in presenting a report that supposedly is in the national interest?

”We have always warned that our democracy is in clear and present danger, not just from desperate politicians, but also from institutions of state that have compromised in their roles and resorted to crass lawlessness. The DSS’ ‘findings’ today have given us another reason to repeat this warning.

”While we are willing to meet the DSS in court, we can confidently say that the ‘confessions’ extracted from the arrested persons, after they were subjected to incredible acts of torture, cannot even stand in any court of law,” APC said.
The party recalled that in its statement of Dec. 5th 2014, it accused the SSS of resorting to the use of torture to obtain forced confessions from those who were arrested during the first raid on the party’s Data Centre in Ikeja.

”In that statement, we called the action of the DSS a contravention of the UN Convention against Torture to which Nigeria is a signatory and a violation of the citizens’ fundamental human rights.

TEXEM Advert

”We also said the DSS shackled the hands and legs of those arrested and blindfolded them while they were being taken to Abuja. The arrested persons remained in chains even at the dark detention cell where they were made to sleep on the bare floor for the 10 days they were detained illegally.

”Guns were pointed at their heads by DSS personnel who threatened to shoot them, while a pregnant woman among those who were arrested was denied access to her drugs even when she started bleeding due to the torture to which she was subjected by the DSS. Now the DSS has confirmed what we said in that press statement. Is anyone still surprised at the action of countries that are distancing themselves from Nigeria over human rights violations?” it queried.

APC said the impending release of the ‘great findings’ by the DSS after its world class investigations must have been the reason why the agency recently threatened it would arrest any politician who makes inciting comments, adding: ”Apparently the DSS needed to silence all so that no one will dare criticize its earth-shaking ‘findings’.”

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • Telegram
  • More
  • WhatsApp
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pocket


Support PREMIUM TIMES' journalism of integrity and credibility

Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.

For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.

By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.

Donate



TEXT AD: Call Willie - +2348098788999






PT Mag Campaign AD

Previous Post

Inter-Party Council canvasses transparent polls in February

Next Post

I don’t hate North, Jonathan tells northern elders

Press Release

Press Release

More News

Senator Ike Ekweremadu

Ohanaeze faults Malami, asks federal govt to intervene in Ekweremadu’s trial

August 15, 2022
4Kaduna state governor, El-Rufai and shehu sani

How El-Rufai is contributing to insecurity in Kaduna State – Shehu Sani

August 15, 2022
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and former Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio

2023: Lawan, Akpabio not APC’s valid candidates for Yobe North, Akwa Ibom North-west, INEC insists

August 15, 2022
Onyenezide’s strike sends Falconets into quarter-finals

U20 Women’s World Cup: Onyenezide’s strike sends Falconets into quarter-finals

August 15, 2022
Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun [PHOTO CREDIT: @dabiodunMFR]

Ogun governor condemns student’s murder, vows prosecution of perpetrators

August 15, 2022
Monkeypox

Monkeypox: Nigeria confirms 15 new cases as men account for over 50% of infections

August 14, 2022
Read All Comment

Our Digital Network

  • PT Hausa
  • Election Centre
  • Human Trafficking Investigation
  • Centre for Investigative Journalism
  • National Conference
  • Press Attack Tracker
  • PT Academy
  • Dubawa
  • LeaksNG
  • Campus Reporter

Resources

  • Oil & Gas Facts
  • List of Universities in Nigeria
  • LIST: Federal Unity Colleges in Nigeria
  • NYSC Orientation Camps in Nigeria
  • Nigeria’s Federal/States’ Budgets since 2005
  • Malabu Scandal Thread
  • World Cup 2018
  • Panama Papers Game
  • Our Digital Network
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Projects
  • Data & Infographics
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2022 The Premium Times, Nigeria

No Result
View All Result
  • #PandoraPapers
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • #EndSARS Dashboard
  • Projects
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • Parliament Watch
    • AGAHRIN
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
  • Opinion
  • The Membership Club
  • DONATE
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • PT Hausa
  • Dubawa NG
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Digital Store

All content is Copyrighted © 2022 The Premium Times, Nigeria