A statement by Eric Omare, IYC president, read: “The IYC strongly calls on President Buhari to put a stop to the satanic plan by the presidency cabal to replace Mr. Seiyefa as Director General of the DSS because there is no basis for it."
The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide described as “unthinkable and an affront” on the sensibility of Nigerians, the Satanic plan by the presidency cabal" to reinstate Lawal Daura, the sacked Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS).
There have been reports of plans to reinstate Lawal, who was sacked after he drafted personnel to lay siege to the National Assembly, an action which prevented lawmakers and staff from accessing the chambers and offices.
A statement by Eric Omare, IYC President, read: “The IYC strongly calls on President Buhari to put a stop to the satanic plan by the presidency cabal to replace Mr. Seiyefa as Director General of the DSS because there is no basis for it.
“Mr. Seiyefa is doing a great job in repositioning the SSS and what he deserves is encouragement from the presidency and not replacement. Furthermore, under no circumstance should Mr. Lawal Daura, the notorious human rights violator, be reinstated as DG SSS because that would amount to taking Nigerians for a ride.
“It would interest Nigerians to know that at the time Mr. Daura was sacked as SSS DG, there were hundreds of Nigerians from different parts of the country that were languishing in SSS detention without trial. And part of the first step Mr. Seiyefa took, in compliance with his maiden media briefing to uphold the rule of law and reposition the agency, was to start the process of releasing some of the persons illegally detained and reform the agency to achieve professionalism.”
Noting that the council recognised the President’s “power to hire and fire head of security agencies in the country”, they noted that “the President also has a corresponding mandatory constitutional duty to ensure that such appointments are in line with the federal character principle".
The statement continued: “At as today, Mr. Seiyefa is one of the few heads of security agencies in Nigeria from the southern part of the country; hence it would amount to grave violation of the federal character principle of the constitution to replace Mr. Seiyefa who was appointed less than a month ago with a northerner as alleged.
“These actions taken by the new SSS DG has earned the praise of Nigerians, especially lovers of human rights and democracy. Hence, we are surprised that the Presidency is contemplating to sack such a man who has brought sanity to the agency that was notorious for violation of human rights under Mr. Lawal Duara.
“It seems obviously that the Buhari administration has a hidden agenda to implement his anti-democratic military decrees of 1984 through which many innocent Nigerians were arrested and detained without trial and any security chief who is not ready to subtly implement such anti-democratic actions is shown the way out.”