DSS Always Informs Immigration Of Individuals On Watchlist – ex-Director

A former Assistant Director with the Department of State Services (DSS), Dennis Amachree, told Punch that it was procedural for the secret police to issue a wire to sister agencies such as Nigeria Immigration Service and the Nigeria Customs Service for a wanted person to not be allowed out of the country.

“If the DSS declares somebody wanted, the person will be placed on watchlist at all border posts and if the person tries to either leave the country or cross the border, the watchlist will expose the person,” Amachree said in an interview with one of our correspondents on Friday.

Asked whether it was also procedural for the DSS to write to financial institutions that the bank accounts of wanted persons be frozen, the former DSS director said, “It depends on the kind of offence the DSS is looking for you for. If it is financial, that will be the duty of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.”

On whether the DSS would approach a court for an ex parte order to block Igboho’s bank accounts, Amachree said, “If during their investigation, they (DSS) discover that he has foreign funding, they will decide what to do about that but I cannot second-guess them.”

Efforts to get the DSS spokesman’s comment on whether or not the secret police had requested  banks to block Igboho’s accounts proved abortive as of press time as he did not take his calls or reply to text messages by one of our correspondents.

Amachree, however, said Nigerians must wait for the DSS to charge Igboho and his associates to know the exact charges preferred against them.

On the time it would take the secret police to charge the arrested persons to court, he said, “I don’t know but it will be very soon.”

The ex-DSS director advised Igboho to turn himself in to security agencies.

He said, “Of course, the DSS has already asked him to turn himself in at the nearest security post or police station and from there they can go ahead. But if he decides to be a fugitive, that is left to him but the long arm of the law will get to him whenever.

“We want one Nigeria and if all kinds of people are coming as if the country is a failed state, the security agencies will come out and show everybody that the government is still in power and there is no reason for people to start behaving as if there is no government at all. That’s what the DSS has done.

“Self-determination should be carried out in a proper way. People can go to the legislature, people can organise themselves and talk about it and agree without violence, but when you start to carry arms; when you start to accumulate different kinds of arms, then you are not doing self-determination. What you want to start is insurgency or a separatist fight and I don’t think any responsible government will sit down and allow you accumulate arms and attack it.”

Also, a lawyer and member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Daniel Bwala, said there was nothing wrong with the self-determination struggle of Igboho and his associates adding that the activists shot themselves in the foot by allegedly stockpiling weapons.

He said, “It is constitutionally guaranteed for him to say that the government is not taking care of him and his people and so he wants the Yoruba Nation. It is when you begin to make do with that threat by doing what is unlawful that it becomes an issue.

“If we can be fair, when he started, nobody arrested him. Nobody arrested him when he held rallies in the other states – until he started stockpiling weapons, as we were told.”

On whether the DSS should ask banks to block Igboho’s accounts or not, Bwala said, “If you declare him wanted and you don’t block his source of funding, that means he can access the money to continue his activities.

“But your bank account can’t be blocked until there is an order of the court. No law enforcement agency has the right to do that without an order of the court. The agency needs to get an ex parte order.”

Bwala advised Igboho to stop fleeing, get a good lawyer and report to the security agents because he has rights under the constitution.

He said, “Naturally, anybody who escapes an arrest will look for the best way to evade arrest. Nobody knows where he is. It is only natural for him to leave the shores of the country because if he remains, they will use intelligence to track him. If he has any smart device, they can track his movement.”