A former deputy director of the Department of State Services, Dennis Amachree, said Friday that some Nigerian politicians are causing trouble for the country.
He regretted that politicians often order the release of arrested national crime suspects.
Speaking on Channels Television’s morning show ‘Sunrise Daily’, Dennis said the political class is limiting intelligence operations by issuing orders over the phone for the release of suspects.
In his view, the independence of intelligence agencies, including the DSS, could make security equipment more effective while fulfilling their constitutional role.
“What I know is that the intelligence community is solid in this country, but what’s hindering them from doing some of the jobs they want to do is politics, politicians, because if you mix with political security, it becomes a big deal.” .
“If these agencies are independent in their own right they should be able to do their job better, but if they’re led by leaders who don’t come or don’t think seriously about the whole country then we have a problem.
“You’re Nigerian and have you ever heard anything called ‘Orders From Above’? And have you heard a situation where someone was arrested for certain things, national crimes, security crimes and a call will come to let the person go? It has happened in the history of this country.
“So you will find that it is not a situation where security forces are not very free to do what they are supposed to do. But if their loyalty is to the constitution of Nigeria, you will find that they will look after the national interest.”
When asked a second time to clarify his earlier point, the ex-DSS director said, “Those calls would come and you can let someone go? Yes, you find out that you have to carry out assignments because you are not at the top of the organization. Even if you’re at the top of the organization, someone above you will call you and say, ‘Okay, we don’t want to do it this way, we’ll do it this way’.”
Amachree reprimanded members of political parties, including the ruling All Progressives Congress and the leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, for turning security concerns into political goals.
“If security is in place, it knows no ethnicity, it knows no religion, it does not know which party, but here’s this separation where you stay when PDP was in power, APC was over them and again when APC comes into power you find the others everywhere and nothing good comes out of the opposition party and that is unpatriotic,” he said.
He urged Nigerians to be more patriotic and not view security issues from the perspective of political affiliation, ethnicity or religion.
