The dust of the just concluded Osun governorship polls does not seem to be about to ebb, going by the string of accusations not only between political parties, but between political parties and the Department of State Security (DSS).
Today on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, the spokesperson of the DSS, Marylin Ogar , wondered why there was no bomb blasts after the Osun governorship election which was won by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Ogar did not specifically or directly accuse the APC of complicity in the bombing, but still wondered why there were bomb blasts in states where other parties apart from the
APC won elections.
Ms Ogar noted that there has been no bombings since the apc won in Edo and Osun elections.
She said that “we had provided security for Edo and at the end of that election, permit me to say, there was no bomb blast.
“We moved to Ondo and the Labour Party won in Ondo, there was bomb blast. We moved to Anambra; APGA won in Anambra and there was a bomb blast”. She said
She however noted that when they “moved to Ekiti and PDP won in Ekiti, there was a bomb blast” and “thank God we were able to deploy appropriately (in Osun), the results came out, the APC have won and thank God there was no bomb blast”.
Asked if she was insinuating that the opposition party was responsible for the bombings, the DSS spokesperson noted that “we should thank God that since after the Osun elections, there has been no bombings” warning that “it doesn’t mean that there should be a bomb blast after i leave the (channels tv Abuja) studio”.
She noted that the DSS does not come out to make such accusations all the time, adding that “we are not meant to intimidate, we are not meant to cow, but we are allow the Nigerian people know that there certain things we know and we keep quiet to work underground to ensure that we dont want to put people into our parts.
She also urged every Nigerian to know that security operatives should not and never be dragged into politics.
There had been allegations that the DSS operatives on duty during the Osun election showed some excesses in the discharge of their duties, an allegation she was bent on debunking.
According to her, while she could understand a political party being bad losers, the Osun matter only meant that bad winners also existed.
She stated that the DSS had not done anything unusual in Osun State, explaining that as a fall-out of the Ekiti election, security reports had revealed that political parties, particularly the PDP and the APC had vowed to outdo each other in the Osun State election and based on security reports, the security agencies “had to deploy adequately to be able to forestall any threat or anything that will pose contrary to free and fair election in Osun State.”
Alleged 14million Naira Offer
It has been reported that the DSS alleged that a political party offered the Security Service a bribe, leading to the Osun election, and she was asked to name the persons involved, so that they could be prosecuted.
She said that prior to the election, an APC member had invited the DSS Director, who was coordinating the election “to come and collect 4 million Naira for himself and another 10 million Naira for the same masked people.
“It was an offer and she said no, that she didn’t think it was necessary because when it has to do with logistics, as far as the Service is concerned, they would definitely have placed everything that would make for a successful operation.
“The rejection of that money on Tuesday brought on a lot of things that ordinarily we had not seen before anywhere.”
On the demand for the identity and prosecution of the persons involved, she said, “The duty of the SSS is to detect, prevent and deter” and using the President’s carrot and stick analogy, “It is not every time that you go out arresting people.”
She said further, “If this same process has been turned down when it had to do with other political parties, and they never took offense, why is it that the APC is taking offense? For me, its like pre-empting and presuming that ‘maybe this people are going to go to town with this stuff so we must be able to cow them to a point where they would be unable to expose what we were trying to do’.
“The person that made the offer knows himself and he knows that we know him.” She insisted that security agencies should not be dragged into politics.
She also clarified the issue surrounding the 14million Naira offer and being referred to as “bribe”.
“I’m sure the people that were doing the offering didn’t see it as a bribe, and I had never mentioned the word bribe. The media has used the word bribe in order to make it sensational.
“I could make you an offer and say this would assist you in what you are doing. Its either you take it or you refuse.
“I did say here that they offered us money to assist us and we said no.”
She added that if indeed the DSS was not accommodating to all parties involved in the election, “the Executive Governor of Osun State wouldn’t have written inviting us to come.”