Security Challenges Will Be Over Before 2023 Elections – DSS

Department of State Security Services (DSS) has assured Nigerians that the pervasive insecurity in some parts of the country would be tackled and a tranquil environment ushered in for the 2023 general elections to hold.

Director-general of the service Yusuf Magaji Bichi gave the assurance during an interaction with the leadership of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in his Abuja office.

Bichi said the optimism derived from increased tempo and the progress being recorded by the nation’s security agencies in the war against terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other forms of insecurity.

In a statement issued by the special adviser on media to IPAC national chairman, Ayuba Ahmad, the DSS boss pointed out that while members of the public may not be aware of the “impressive mileage covered so far “, the security agencies have been working in synergy such that the various armed groups, insurgents and other violent criminals “have been severely decapitated to near position of total annihilation”.

Bichi said the DSS had been alive to its its primary, statutory mandate of surveillance, intelligence gathering, detection, prevention and arrest of persons whose actions pose danger to public or national security.

He called on the general public to be patriotic by being alert to their civic responsibilities of vigilance, law abiding and supportive of efforts of security agencies in the war against criminals and criminality, he noted that, the cooperation of citizens is very critical in checking the menace of bad eggs in the society.

On the specific objective and desire for a conducive atmosphere for the conduct of the elections next year, Bichi emphasised the role of the political parties, their candidates and supporters who he said, must embark on peaceful, issue-based campaigns instead of stoking the “embers of insecurity, anarchy and violence by whipping up divisive sentiments of religion, ethnicity, regional and other fault lines”.

Earlier, Sani said the visit was informed by the “rising and frightening ” insecurity in parts of the country which he noted, must be contained “very urgently and comprehensively” in order to stave off the palpable danger posed to the nation’s progress on the path of democracy.

Sani said the leadership of the platform for all the registered political parties in the country was very worried and concerned because, “beside the calamities of death, disruption of the nation’s economy and the devastating social dislocations presently on the rampage across the country, the monstrous phenomenon of insecurity palpably portends the capacity of reversing the gains