Invitation by DSS, plot to silence Bishop Kukah — SOKAPU

The Southern Kaduna People’s Union has said the invitation by the Department of State Services of the Archbishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan, was a way of silencing him.

The union levelled the allegation in a statement issued on Sunday by its National Youth leader, Issac John Sirjay.

It thus advised Bishop Kukah not to honour the invitation.

It said: “Lately, we mourned the sudden demise of Dr Obadiah Mailafia of blessed memory who until his death was a dogged critic of this administration and a regular visitor at one of the DSS facilities.

“Without ruling out any possibility of harm, we consider the invitation of Bishop Kukah by the DSS as one of such ploy designed to silence him at all cost.

“While we urge the Bishop to ignore such invitation by the DSS for the obvious reasons of threat to life and personal safety, we are urging the DSS to focus on the ravaging impact of insecurity, kidnapping and banditry across the country rather than distracting the Bishop who is only pointing the obvious about the decaying state of the country’s security architecture.

“It is rather unfortunate to note that with the recent declaration of bandits as terrorists by President Buhari, we had anticipated an invitation from the DSS to the likes of Sheikh Gumi who has always fronted and still fronts for terrorist bandit groups but the reverse is, however, the case.

“In light of the above, it suffices to state boldly that the DSS has unarguably deviated from its core mandate of protecting national security and has become a willing tool for the suppression of free speech.

“We, therefore, call for an independent investigation into the activities of the Nigerian Department of State Services with a view to restructuring the institution and its mode of operations in line with global best practices.”