Fifth Columnists and The Futility of Negative Narratives Around The DSS
By Onyema Nwabueze, feminwabuking@gmail.com, Imo State
For a while now, the DSS have earned commendations from unusual quarters across the country. It would rarely be a surprise especially to the average Nigerian, when commendations for Government agencies run with taxpayer’s funds, come from top Politicians and Government functionaries – these are usually considered cohorts and their applaud of one another practically counts for nothing. But when the average member of the justifiably dissatisfied Nigerian public finds a reason to commend any Government agency, particularly a security agency, then it must count for something in all intents and purposes.
High level operational successes of the agency in recent times, have drawn adulations from persons like the Governor of Niger State, Umar Bago especially after the DSS nabbed the leader of one of Nigeria’s feared terror groups, Mahmuda in Niger State. The NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, has also at different fora, alluded to the critical intelligence and operational input by the DSS on critical national security matters inspired by the understated leadership of its Director-General, Oluwatosin Adeola Ajayi. But what stands out is the consistent commendation by the typically unsparing Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA). Hitherto known for giving Nigeria’s security agencies the knocks for their less than desirable human rights antecedents.
The group has on more than one occasion in 2025 alone, praised the impressive new-found compliance with human rights by the DSS. It has also specifically outlined the agency’s release and payment of compensatios to wrongfully detained Nigerians in iDSS facility. For instance, the trio of Augustine Udemba, Nelson Udemba and Ifesinachi Eze were released in June 2025 having been wrongfully detained for the killing of some Fulani herders by IPOB. Another victim, Abdulyakini Salisu, who was wrongfully detained on suspicion of kidnapping was released and awarded N10 million in compensation. There is also the case of a Jos-based businessman who was shot in the leg in 2016 by DSS operatives and secured a court judgment for N10 million damages against the agency. This was not paid until Ajayi assumed office and not only complied with the judgement but added an additional N10 million to defray cost of treatment incurred by the victim over the years.
Most recently, Mrs Chineze Ozoadibe, an Abuja-based businesswoman, detained for several months on the suspicion of illegal oil bunkering, was released and received a compensation of N10 million. Several other similar acts of mea culpa by the DSS are well documented since Ajayi’s appointment as the DGSS. A development that prompted HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, to recently concede in an August 2025 statement that “it is not every day that the human rights community in Nigeria is compelled to acknowledge progress within a security agency that is historically been associated with arbitrary detention and abuse of power. But we must give credit where it is due.”
Under what is obviously a paradigm shift, the DSS seemed to have also embraced civility rather than gestapo oppressive tactics in setting the records straight on misleading reportage of its operations. In the aftermath of its invited intervention in the abated Lagos State Assembly impasse in February 2025, AIT and Channels among other media platforms, publicly apologised to the agency for their erroneous presentation of the involvement of the DSS as an invasion of the legislative house. Earlier in September 2024, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), made similar claims of invasion of its Abuja office by the DSS, which the agency challenged in court rather than hound the leadership of the Non-Governmental Organisation.
It therefore beggars belief that despite the favourable reviews by even its fiercest critics and an obvious improvement in the alignment of its operations with the rule of law, recalcitrant detractors still manage to spawn false misleading narratives against the DSS. Unsurprisingly, such fifth columnists have found a pliable accomplice in the snollygoster faux human rights activist, Yele Sowore. From unwarrantedly attacking the Police and the personality of the Inspector-General, Sowore has quickly jumped on anti-DSS propaganda in his relentless desperation to please his paymasters. His latest indulgence has somehow coincided with claims by Nnamdi Kanu’s legal team that the DSS suddenly lacked the capacity to provide adequate medical care for the embattled IPOB leader after over four years in lawful detention. These developments betray the destabilising antics of non-state actors and one only hopes that the DSS knows better not to be distracted from what has so far been its largely commendable efforts at addressing myriad of nagging national security challenges. Discerning Nigerians know better and only their opinions matter. Nigeria will be great again.
