The presidency has reacted to the lopsidedness in the latest recruitment exercise by the DSS,, which was exposed by Premium Times on Friday, April 28.
The recruitment particularly favoured Katsina state, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari and the DSS boss, Mamman Daura.
The DSS boss, Daura (left) and President Buhari (right) are from Katsina state
More people were employed from Katsina state alone (51) than from all the South-east states combined (44).
According to a breakdown by the report, the newly commissioned cadet officers on geopolitical basis revealed that 165 are from the North-west, about four times as many as those who were picked from the South-south (42).
The figures for the other zones are North-east 100, North-central 66, South-west 57 and South-east 44.
The presidency however claimed the recruitment details were analysed out of context.The presidency’s reaction was contained in a statement which curiously had no name attached to it.
The unsigned statement said the secret police deliberately employed fewer southerners to correct previous ‘inequity’ against the northern part of the country.
The government did not however provide details of which states were under-represented and to what extent.
But a source in the DSS debunked the claim as “an afterthought.”
The DSS is Nigeria’s number one intelligence agency and secret police
“The presidency should be bold to launch an enquiry into this matter.
Nigerians should stoutly resist this attempt by the presidency to cover up the matter,” one of the sources said.
Another source said the DSS boss is famous within the service for his pro-North posturing.
“He is currently spending billions to build a training school in Katsina, and he has told close friends that before his departure from the SSS, he would ensure the agency is dominated by personnel from his part of the country,” the source said.
One of the DSS employees who reached out to
NAIJ also accused Daura of sectionalism.
The employee who begged to be anonymous to avoid being victimised, said the current housing loan which is supposed to be given to those who are above 10 years in the DSS wasn’t given to southerners.
The DSS employee however claimed that the loan was given to northerners within the service who aren’t even up to 9 years in the DSS.
“We heard that he has over 45 children and he pays them 50,000 naira weekly, about 4 of them are in the current Cadet recruitment too.
“Things are tough for personnel of this service, but he doesn’t care at all. He just threatens us that if we don’t bring up intelligence reports, we will be retired,” the employee added.
