By Tobias Lengnan Dapam
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Citizens United Against Subversion (CUAS), and Coalition for Peace In Nigeria (COPIN) have commended the Department of State Services (DSS) over the ultimatum it handed to players in the oil and gas sector, which they noted, led to the easing of fuel scarcity in Abuja and other major cities in the country.
Recall that the DSS had, in the wake of biting scarcity, held a strategic meeting Regulator, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), and petrol marketers, including Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) among others.
Consequently, the Service had issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the affected bodies to ensure product availability, vowing that an enforcement operation will be deployed at the expiration of the window period.
In separate statements signed by National Coordinator, and Secretary of CUAS, Dr Abu Mallam, and Secretary, Mrs Chinonyelum Ogundele,, as well as National Coordinator, and Secretary of COPIN, Pharmacist Emeka Akwuobi, and Hajiya Fatih Yakub respectively, the civil society organisations charged other agencies and institutions of government to emulate the DSS.
“We at Citizens United Against Subversion (CUAS) hasten to commend the Department of State Services (DSS) for their timely and responsible intervention, which saw to the easing of fuel scarcity in many parts of the country, especially Abuja, the Federal Capital.
“We are not surprised that the DSS did what it did, considering the sterling record of performance by the secret service under the able and dynamic leadership of the Director General (DG SS), Alhaji Yusuf Magaji Bichi (fwc, CFR).
“We are aware that since assumption of office on September 14, 2018, Alh. Bichi has continued to steer the foremost domestic intelligence agency on the part of professionalism, efficiency in intelligence gathering, infrastructural renewal, enhanced welfare among others.
“Little wonder the Commander-in-Chief deemed it appropriate to renew his appointment for another term of four years”, CUAS said in the statement.
On it’s part, COPIN advised those criticising the intervention to study the Instrument establishing the Service, so as to understand the intelligence agency’s statutory mandate (s).
“As a responsible civil society group, whose preoccupation the promotion, propagation and enthronement of peace in Nigeria, we make bold to say that the DSS is saddled with the responsibility of detecting and preventing threats to national security and peace.
“We further note that the secret service has the mandate to frustrate nip-in-the bud economic sabotage, under any guise whatsoever.
“Having regard to the aforestated, therefore, COPIN calls on the general public to see the intervention of the DSS in the fuel scarcity conundrum as noble and well thought-out move, which is within the bounds of their powers”, it said.
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