Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Comrade Timi Frank says Nigeria’s secret police – Department of State Services (DSS) – has metamorphosed into an intelligence arm of the ruling party and urgently needs a total overhaul.
Frank said the DSS needs to wake up and restore the confidence Nigerians had in its leadership.
In a statement sent to SaharaReporters on Tuesday, he accused the secret police of monitoring and then leaking telephone conversations of opposition political leaders in order to embarrass them and impress “the APC elements”.
How do we explain away the fact that the DSS has continued to tap the telephone lines and release phone recordings of opposition politicians and influential Nigerians critical of the government?
“The latest misadventure was a leaked telephone conversation between Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and revered cleric, Bishop David Oyedepo, the founder of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, and presiding Bishop of the Faith Tabernacle in Ota, Ogun State.
“On the eve of the Presidential election, Obi and Bishop Oyedepo had a private telephone conversation. There was no terror plot and the conversation in itself was not about the use of violence. Obi simply asked Bishop Oyedepo to help him convince his congregation in the southwest to vote for him.
“Similarly, a day after the Presidential election, former President Olusegun Obasanjo received a call from Musician, Charles Oputa professionally known as Charly Boy. In the conversation, Charly Boy asked Obasanjo what could be done to stop the stealing of the people’s mandate. Obasanjo suggested that they could protest. The right to peaceful protest is guaranteed by the constitution.
“Private discussions are what they are: private. Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution expressly states: ‘The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications is hereby guaranteed and protected.’”
He further described the recent leaked phone conversations as highly unprofessional and smacks of partisanship.
