The Southern and Northern Leaders and Elders Forum has raised the alarm over purported plans by some cabals in the presidency to remove Matthew Seiyefa, the Acting Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS).

In a statement on Sunday, spokesmen of the forum, Yinka Odumakin for Afenifere; Dr. Junaid Mohammed for NEF; Prof. Chigozie Ogbu for Ohanaeze; Senator Bassey Henshaw for South South and Dr. Isuwa Dogo (Middle Belt), said the plot to remove Seiyefa is hinged on the professional reorganisation of the DSS which the cabals are not happy with.

The statement reads, “The attention of the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum has been drawn to a clandestine plot to remove the Acting Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) from office by a cabal in the Buhari presidency.

 
“We ordinarily would have ignored this report but for the clannishness, sectional proclivity and exclusive handling of the security architecture of the country by President Buhari in the last three years.

“He had defied all protestations from all well-meaning Nigerians in making appointments into all key and sensitive security positions in sectional and kith and kin affairs in a very insensitive and you-can-do-your-worse-manner that until the recent sack of Daura, 16 out of 17 service chiefs were from his corner of the country.

“It is equally not lost on us that since the president returned from his holidays in London he has not made a comment on the invasion of the National Assembly by the DSS in his absence which led to the acting president rightly removing the former DG, Lawal Daura, confirming speculation that he is not happy with the removal.

 
“The plot to remove the Acting DG is said to be hinged on the professional reorganisation of the service by him which the cabal is now interpreting as removing APC elements in DSS for PDP apologists, a clear indication of the divisions this administration has caused in every facet of our life as a nation.

“Facts at our disposal, however, show that what the Acting DG has done is a good example of how to run a diverse polity which this administration has ignored in the last three years.

“It was said that under Daura, every need to organise the service along federal character and fill existing vacancies were ignored as he concentrated on nepotism in running DSS and keeping a coterie of those who have retired or have passed retirement in service and many of them having nothing to contribute. The service rule says such people can only be taken on contract if they have special skills.

“The Acting DG reportedly noticed that there were three other directors from the South-South apart from himself and decided to relieve two of them so that a director could be brought in from the South-West that had nobody on the management and another person from the North-West.

“There were about 40 senior officers who were due for retirement or pre-retirement leave whom he had found competent replacement for in a fair manner and according to the service rules.

“The Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, is said to have given instructions that the DG should ask all the newly promoted to go back to their previous positions, a directive that ought to have come from the National Security Adviser if there was the need for any. Now the plot is to remove Seiyefa himself.

“All these confirm the politicisation of a purely security outfit and the denigration of all institutions by an administration that has shown scant regard for due process.

“We call on President Buhari to immediately call his Chief of Staff to order so that he can withdraw the obnoxious directive and allow the agency to run professionally.

 
“We also warn of the consequences of further alienating sections of the country by the administration particularly the Niger Delta where the Acting DG is from and the South West whose only representation on the management of DSS has now been reversed.

“The rest of the country has lived with the insensitivity of Mr. President in handling the security architecture in the last three years with equanimity. It may be necessary not to overstretch it by removing the Acting DG and stopping the professional reorganisation in the DSS because it is not in tandem with the ethnic domination script of Mr. President. It may turn out the proverbial last straw!”