The Department of State Services has knocked five major newspapers for a ‘predictable and biased’ reportage of the arrest of the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele and the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa.
According to a Press Release on the agency’s official website on Tuesday, the Public Relations Officer, DSS, Dr. Peter Afunanya, fsi, criticized Vanguard, Daily Trust, The Sun, Tribune and The PUNCH for their varied views on the recent arrests of Emefiele and Bawa.
The DSS stated that it had the powers to make the arrests based on the directive of the Presidency.
While acknowledging the right of these newspaper platforms to make reports on these cases, it clarified that security intelligence had over the years grown complicated and beyond the knowledge of the general public, just as in western countries.
The release read in part, “Recently, about five major newspapers called out the DSS for bashing of sorts. The papers, which used their platforms to express varied views about the modus operandi of the Service include Vanguard, Daily Trust, The Sun, Tribune and Punch. While Vanguard’s piece on 2nd June 2023 was Dousing the DSS/EFCC Feud, Daily Trust, on 6th June 2023, published an editorial titled The DSS Must Conduct Its Duties as a Secret Service. The Sun, on 7th June, published The Needless DSS/EFCC Fracas while Tribune on 8th June 2023 wrote on The EFCC/DSS Confrontation. Similarly, on 14th June 2023, Punch featured DSS, Others Need Radical Reforms. It did not seem that the editorials which sought the reforms of the DSS or to criticise it for its public statements or actions on various subject matters of national security concern were, by any means, an accident or a coincidence. It looked every inch planted or organised. It is a hatchet job or so it seemed. The judgement that the Service is excessively public or ubiquitous missed the point. The papers manifested predictable bias and patterns.
“…While it may be fair to admit that the news media and aforementioned personalities are entitled to their opinions, measured ignorance predominantly played out in their arguments. First, they failed to recognise that security threats are evolving and so do the approaches to managing them. Instructively, the security landscape in Nigeria, like many other countries, has become increasingly complex and dynamic. The periodic issuance of press statements to educate or carry citizens and residents along has undoubtedly become part of strategies to manage national security challenges. Extensive research would have revealed to the critics that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other world intelligence Services deploy similar tactics including occasional statements and advisories. The CIA includes demographic information on its website to provide the public with valuable insights and data about various populations so to enhance understanding of different regions and communities. Does it mean CIA is operating outside its mandate? Or will that be accepted because it’s CIA, a foreign body?”
