PDP says new DSS DG is a member of APC

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Lawan Daura, director-general of the Department of State Service (DSS), of being a card-carrying member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), describing his appointment as “ungodly and unacceptable”.

Speaking at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday, Uche Secondus, acting national chairman of the PDP, alleged that Daura was a critical intelligence stakeholder for the APC during the presidential campaigns. He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to rein him in, alleging that the DSS under Daura was hounding electoral officers and members of election petition tribunal in PDP states. “The National Working Committee (NWC) brings to the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari to some disturbing development in the polity which, if not nipped in the bud, might significantly affect our democracy and stability as a nation negatively, and that is the growing and unwarranted intrusion of some over-zealous security operatives on issues bordering purely on politics,” he said. “In particular, the NWC wishes to draw the attention of the president to the continued intimidation, harassment as well as the hounding, arrest and detention of electoral officers and members of election tribunals by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) in Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and other PDP states. “The NWC notes that this unfortunate development has been the case since the appointment of the new director general of the DSS, Alhaji Lawan Musa Daura, whom we learnt was a critical intelligence stakeholder of the APC as a card-carrying member of that party during the campaigns. This is ungodly and unacceptable. “We do hope that in his new job, the director-general of DSS is not mixing issues on the APC presidential candidate and the president of the federal republic of Nigeria, hence the need for Mr President to rein him in as the development is capable of eroding the cherished independence of the judiciary and the electoral commission, a sine qua non for a virile democracy, which guarantees our unity and stability as a nation.” Secondus also  President Buhari to reconsider the appointment of Amina Zakari, acting chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), saying she is not suitable for the position because of her blood relationship with him. “Similarly, we urge Mr President to take a critical look at the issue of the appointment of Amina Zakari as acting chairman of INEC for which our party has several times raised some salient issues on why she is not suitable for that position. It is incontrovertible that Mrs Zakari, by virtue of her blood relationship with Mr President, cannot preside over the affairs of an Independent National Electoral Commission,” he said. “Nigeria belongs to all of us irrespective of political, religious and ethnic affiliation and as a responsible political party we shall not fold our hands and watch while our nation drift along dangerous line. “Furthermore, the NWC commends and congratulates the PDP caucuses in the senate and the house of representatives on the smooth emergence of the minority leadership in the national assembly. We note that the process was without any interference whatsoever from the leadership of our great party in keeping with the dictates of the independence of the legislature. “Finally, the NWC deliberated on the state of the party in Ekiti state and resolved that it only recognises the state Exco led by Chief Idowu Faleye. The NWC however summons all critical stakeholders in the party administration in Ekiti state to a meeting with the national leadership on the issues in the state chapter.”