No INEC Staff Was Arrested – DSS

AISHA ABUBAKAR

The Department of State Services, DSS, said their attention has been drawn to the allegations and fake news in the media space that the agency arrested some ICT staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for disclosing the Commission’s Server Identity Number to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its Presidential Candidate in the just concluded elections,  His Excellency,  Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. 

According to Peter Afunanya, Public Relations Officer, Department of State Services, the fake news carriers even went further to allege that “7 staffers of the ICT department were quizzed, detained and tortured for 3 days by the DSS to find who gave…such information” and that they were hurriedly released when their wives threatened to jointly go on public protest.

The Service wishes to state that the information in its entirety is false and should be seen as a calculated effort to smear its image. It states categorically that none of such things happened as it never invited or arrested any INEC staff.

“There is no iota of truth in these allegations and the public is, therefore, enjoined to disregard them. They are simply manipulative, misleading, inciting  and can only be considered as mischievous and unpatriotic.”

It would be recalled that the DSS was recently honoured by an International Election Observer Group, the Civil Military Relations Committee of the Geneva based International Human Rights Commission, for its highly considered  neutrality and professionalism during the 2019 general elections.The public is assured that the Service will continue to conduct itself in the manner that has earned it this honour and even similar ones.

“It is the wish of the DSS that mischief makers who are desirous of using fake news to cause a break down of law and order should desist from such. The Service will not condone deliberate acts of subversion and sabotage aimed at harming the peace of the nation. However, no efforts will be spared to ensure that those bent on causing disaffection are brought to justice. The Service rededicates itself to civility and the ideals of democracy in the discharge of its mandate” the DSS said.