The All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised the alarm over plans by the Department of State Service (DSS), acting at the behest of some politicians, to arrest its chairman in Borno State, Ali Abubakar Dalori, on trumped-up charges.
The party said the planned arrest was capable of precipitating crisis in an already-volatile environment.
In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC pointed out that the situation in Borno is already very dire, hence no one should add fuel to a raging fire simply because of scorched-earth politics.
The opposition party warned the DSS to resist the growing temptation to wade into the murky waters of politics, even while it is becoming glaring that the agency is being compromised under the present political dispensation.
“The careless and clearly partisan statements being made by DSS spokesperson Marilyn Ogar have shown discerning Nigerians the direction in which the agency is leaning. However, it must still exercise caution in order not to spark a needless crisis in Borno.
“We have it on good authority that with the recent movement of Ali Modu Sheriff to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), attempts are being made to destabilise the APC in Borno, using agencies of the state like the DSS. The take-off point is the arrest of our chairman in the state on trumped-up charges.
“Let those seeking to trigger a crisis in Borno know that the indigenes are resolute in their determination to ensure a level-playing field in the run-up to the 2015 elections. It is curious that the DSS has suddenly unearthed supposed offences committed by Dalori to warrant his arrest, now that Sheriff has defected to the PDP.
“We are compelled to warn the DSS that as an organ of state, it cannot afford to be partisan. An agency being sustained by the taxpayers cannot turn around to hunt the same taxpayers. An agency that is supposed to protect Nigerians cannot be the same agency being used to witch-hunt the opposition.
“Unless the DSS turns a new leaf and stops making itself a tool in the hands of politicians, the agency will ridicule itself and weaken its capacity to function effectively”, APC said.
The party, therefore, called on the DSS and other security agencies to concentrate their efforts on arresting the daily carnage being perpetrated in Borno and other states by Boko Haram, instead of allowing those who helped to precipitate the carnage in the first instance to further destabilise the state.