The Foundation for Environmental Rights, Advocacy, and Development, FENRAD, has raised concerns about the impunity of the Department of State Security, DSS, and its disregard for the rule of law in the last eight years.
FENRAD’s executive director, Nelson Nnanna Nwafor, made the observation in Umuahia on Monday on the occasion of the 2023 World Anti-Corruption Day.
According to him, how DSS personnel go about re-arresting people freed by the court has been worrisome.
“Most lamentable is that in the last eight years, the state security service has become an agent of lawlessness. We have witnessed attempts to rearrest someone the court had freed right there inside the courtroom or also instances of inter-agency rivalry,” he said.
The group also condemned the purchase of N160 million worth of vehicles for 469 lawmakers and the purchase of a yacht by the Federal Government. It also decried the nation’s habit of borrowing money to fund its budget and turning around to mismanage such funds on frivolities, to the detriment of poor Nigerians.
The group further cited contradictory judgements from courts in post-election cases as another worrying trend in the country.
FENRAD noted that for corruption to be defeated in Nigeria, the federal and state governments must be genuinely resolved to fight the monster.
World Anti-Corruption Day: Group decries DSS impunity, govt’s borrowing habit