The Department of State Services (DSS) has denied reports that its officials visited the home of a Premium Times editor over a story published by the online newspaper on the presidency.
The newspaper had alleged that agents of Nigeria’s secret police on Sunday, breached the security of the Abuja residence of Muskilu Mojeed, its Editor-in-Chief, to extract the source of a secret memo published by the newspaper.
The memo was written by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno to service chiefs, warning them against taking orders from Abba Kyari, President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff.
It said men suspected to be officers of the State Security Service (SSS) in plain-clothes men who drove in a Camry car (Muzzle brand) arrived the house on Sunday morning and told Haulat, the wife who answered the knock on the gate, that they had a message for her journalist husband, requesting that she opened the gate to receive the message.
The strangers had told the that they knew that the husband was not at home but insisted that they had a “very important message” to deliver to him and persuaded her to open the gate to receive it but she instead asked them to pass the message through the opening in the gate.
According to the report, the two suspected DSS officials, one wearing a T-shirt and the other in a corporate suit, pressed further, insisting that she had to open the gate and sign for the message they came to deliver but Haulat maintained she could receive and sign for the message without opening the gate.
Noticing that the men were adamant, it was learned that the wife of the editor told the men that she would have to go inside the house to phone her husband and ask for permission before she could open the gate. It was at this time that the men turned and left, driving off in a heavily tinted black Camry car.
But the DSS in a statement on Sunday by its spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, denied the allegations stressing that the report is false, unfounded and just a needless sensationalism.
Read the full statement below:
The report that the DSS is laying siege on Premium Times and has hacked the phones of one of its staff is false in its entirety.
It is unfounded and just a needless sensationalism.
There is no such operation at the moment by the Service targeted at the Premium Times, its Editor or staff.
If there is any need for the DSS to discharge its duty, it sure has to do that with every sense of decency and in accordance with laid down procedures.
Now, the Service is not anywhere near the news agency. Therefore, the report should be disregarded. It is fake news.
The development is coming after the newspaper had on Saturday, alleged that the DSS launched a manhunt for a reporter of the story in question, Samuel Ogundipe.
It said sources at the presidency confirmed that the kitchen cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari were very angry over the matter and had sworn to make Ogundipe reveal the identity of his sources and that the reporter is concerned about his safety and has since then gone into hiding.
