DSS Bribery Accusation Is ‘Unprofessional, Crass Partisanship’

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines Thursday, August 14th, 2014

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the financial inducement statement credited to the Department of State Services (DSS) on the recent Osun state governorship election as “crass partisanship and unprofessional conduct”.

Deputy Director, Public Relations, DSS, Ms Marilyn Ogar

In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party berated the agency’s spokesperson, Ms. Marilyn Ogar and demanded that she should be properly trained and given the necessary exposure for her to speak with knowledge and facts, instead of making baseless and ” incautious” comments.

Alhaji Mohammed posited: ”It is sad that a spokesperson for the DSS does not know there is no offence called ‘loitering’ under Nigerian laws. For her to now go on national television to say the APC’s National Publicity Secretary was arrested for ‘loitering’ in Osogbo on the eve of the state’s governorship election is the height of ignorance and constitutes a great embarrassment to DSS”.

”It is even worse that the so-called Spokesperson, ever so glib, would make a joke out of such a faux pas by an agency that is supposed to be non-partisan and highly professionalized. How on earth can any human being not be disoriented when 15 hooded gunmen arrest him/her and point their weapons at his/her head as they did to me on that night in Osogbo?, APC asked.

APC argued that Ms. Ogar’s questioning on presence of its leaders in Osun on the day of election was lopsided as she failed to querry the same of the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) stalwarts such as Minister of state For Defenece, Musiliu Obanikoro, Chris Uba and others.
The opposition party noted that the accusation of his presence and others in Osun was baseless as APC has earlier announced temporary relocation of its headquarters to the state to give support for just the returned Governor Rauf Aregbesola, asking why Ogar did not question the presence of President Goodluck Jonathan or Vice President Namadi Sambo in the state when they visited.

The party insisted that Ms. Ogar’s conduct was obviously “unprofessional and irresponsible”.
APC alleged that DSS which spearheaded the mass arrest of its leaders and members in Osun before and during the August 9 poll as well as prevented the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) rally has now turned around to accuse the same party of bribery.It described as a tissue of lies the allegation by Ogar that the party tried to bribe the DSS with N14 million before the election, wondering why the agency did not arrest the official who was involved in the act.

The allegation by Ms. Ogar APC contended “would have been sweet in her mouth had the DSS mounted a sting operation to catch whoever was offering the alleged bribe, and then prosecute him or her”, adding that the likes of DSS publicist, needed adequate education that election was not war, “but a celebration of democracy…”

Allegation of N14 Million financial inducement to DSS officilas to manipulate outcome of last Saturday Osun poll was made public by Ms. Ogar on Tuesday during a press conference in Abuja.