Operatives of the State Security Service, SSS, have begun crackdown against members of the opposition New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP in Kano, laying siege to the offices of their key members.
In a statement released Wednesday by Sanusi Dawakin-Tofa, the spokesman for the NNPP governorship candidate, said the operatives were caught on camera planting weapons in their members’ offices in order to allegedly frame them.
“Today, Wednesday 22nd February, 2023, three days to the general elections, men of the Department of State Security, DSS, in Kano have laid siege on the Campaign Office of the NNPP. The office of the directors of Support Groups and that of the director of Youth Mobilization were cordoned by men of the DSS. We wish to state categorically that our party will never be intimidated.
“The DSS must not cheapen itself and be misused by the discredited administration of Mr. Ganduje.
“Laying siege to our offices and threatening the safety and security of our campaign directors and campaign staff will not be accepted.
“We are horrified to note that the men of the DSS were brazenly bringing weapons from their vehicles and putting them in the offices of our directors. This was done in the presence of our campaign staff, who also recorded the incidence on video. We have pictures and video evidence of this flagrant setup.
“We write to draw the attention of the Director General of the DSS to call his Command in Kano to order. Going to our offices to plant weapons with the intention of framing our campaign directors can neither change the result of the election nor can it change the mind of millions of our supporters.
“DSS must desist from intimidating, harassing and framing our members,” the statement said.
Mr Dawakin-Tofa stated further the wife of the DG of the service, Aisha Bichi, once boasted that she would now all the the governorship candidate of the party, Abba Yusuf, to become governor.
“We have not forgotten that few weeks ago, the wife of the DG of DSS who incidentally is from Kano State was openly and pompously saying that “they will never allow the NNPP to win in Kano”. Is the siege of our offices and the attempt to plant weapons in our offices part of the plan blurted by the wife of the DG to stop NNPP from winning?
“Let it be known that the threat made by the wife of the DSS DG and today’s evil action of condoning our offices and planting weapons are not mere coincidences. They are products of conspiracies that between the Ganduje Administration and the Kano DSS command.
“The complicity of the Kano director of the DSS in all these must not be overlooked. The director, who ought to retire almost a year ago, was retained on the request of Mr Ganduje because they believed that they have fully compromised him. We have not forgotten how this same director was used in 2019 to subvert the will of Kano people and stole the gubernatorial election victory from us. Let it be known that we will never accept the repeat of 2019 in 2023.
“Astonishingly, now that vote buying opportunity has been blocked to a significant extent, intelligence reaching us showed that the State Government is conniving with other security agencies to harass and intimidate peaceful voters. This, will also be vehemently resisted by the patriotic Kano people.
“With this unfortunate incident, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, the international community and all credible election observers to beam their search light on senior security personnel operating in Kano to checkmate the evil plan against 2023 general in the State,” Mr Dawakin-Tofa added.
