Indications have emerged that former spokesman of the Department of State Services (DSS), Marilyn Ogar, was sent packing from the nation’s secret police for her alleged partisan role during the last general elections while President Muhammadu Buhari’s former chief security officer (CSO), Abdulrahman Mani, was sacked for absenting himself from work.
LEADERSHIP Friday gathered from sources that Ogar, who has seven more years to go in the DSS, was sent on compulsory retirement along with two directors of the service and 49 other senior officers.
The security sources said while Ms Ogar was retired from service for alleged corruption and involvement in partisan politics, Mani, a deputy director, was sacked for failing to report for duty.
The source said Ogar’s sack followed her role in the allegation of cloning of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) levelled against the then opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) during which the party was accused of planning to rig the presidential election.
The DSS had also accused the APC of registering underage persons, serving military personnel as well as the dead, with intent to rig the election.
The source also made reference to the spokesman’s role during the governorship election in Osun State where APC spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, was arrested and detained for alleged wandering even when wandering had been expunged from the statute books.
Ogar’s travails started shortly after the PDP lost the presidential election to the APC. Not a few Nigerians, especially members of the APC, criticized the bias exhibited by the DSS and called its overhauling and removal of suspected bad eggs from the agency.
Department of State Services (DSS)
LEADERSHIP Friday learnt that a signal from the leadership of the service issued Wednesday night listed the former DSS spokesman, Ogar, and Mani as among those affected by the marching order.
Ogar, a former deputy director of the DSS in charge of public relations, suffered a similar fate two months ago shortly after the inauguration of the present government when she was summarily sacked. She also lost her recent promotion following President Muhammadu Buhari’s nullification of the promotion exercise.
Ogar and 44 other officers were beneficiaries of a promotion exercise carried out in the Service in March contrary to the policy in DSS that promotions were to be done at the end of each year. The promotion drew the ire of many Nigerians who felt that it was a reward for their unprofessional roles during the elections.
Buhari had fired the then DSS director-general, Ita Ekpeyong, and replaced him with Lawal Daura. Shortly after his assumption of office, Daura reversed the promotions.
Unconfirmed reports said Ogar was redeployed to Maiduguri, Borno State, after her demotion but she refused to comply.
Ogar’s promotion to deputy director followed a presidential commendation by former President Goodluck Jonathan, who, it appeared, was impressed by her public enlightenment campaigns on the fight again terror.
Mani, who was promoted deputy director following his appointment as Buhari’s CSO, soon courted controversy in the early days of the Buhari presidency as he and the president’s ADC, Col Mohammed Abubakar, clashed over the deployment of military personnel to take charge of the inner security of the president.
LEADERSHIP Friday learnt that Mani’s travails began when Buhari appointed Lawal Daura, a fellow Katsina native, as the acting DSS DG. Sources said there was a strained relationship already existing between Mani and Daura.
The ex-CSO was promptly posted to Bayelsa State Command of the Service, a move which did not go down well with Mani.
The security source said President Buhari later ordered the reversal of Mani’s posting believing it was punitive.
Mani was redeployed to the presidential villa as the president’s chief detail, a designation that is second in command to the CSO.
Mani was said to be unhappy with the arrangement and refused to report to duty, the reason given by the SSS for his retirement.
Every attempt to reach Ms Ogar to react to the allegation of partisanship were futile as her telephone line would not go through. Meanwhile, the DSS’ refusal to appoint a spokesman to replace Ogar months after her removal has brought the service under criticism from Nigerians and the media who felt that the Service should have a voice.
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