Yusuf Bichi, Director General of the State Security Service (SSS), says the Nigeria secret police would no longer tolerate activities of human rights advocates in the country. 

Mr Bichi said that the advocates were “discouraging the security agencies” in their activism to kick against human rights violations and abuses in Nigeria. 

“Those canvassing for human rights are just discouraging the security agencies. Many of these people are doing disservice to the country. My service will not allow anyone to mess up this country,” he said 

“If you are inciting people, you have not done what God asked you to do. Whatever you are told, it is better you investigate very well before making any comment,” Mr Bichi added.

The head of the secret police made the threat at the graduation ceremony of the Executive Intelligence Management Course 15 at the National Institute for Security Studies held at the weekend in Abuja.

Many Nigerians have often complained of human rights abuse, illegal arrests, torture, and abduction against the SSS. 

Also, among the allegations levelled against the SSS, especially since the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari emerged, are its disregard for the rule of law and arbitrary arrests of Nigerians.

In August, the global human rights watchdog Amnesty International accused the SSS and the police of abducting innocent Nigerians and failing to release them.

The human rights organisation noted that many arrests and illegal detentions have been carried out by the SSS without thinking about the families of the victims. 

Amnesty noted that the Nigerian authorities must show genuine commitment to ending the heinous crime of enforced disappearances, which is still prevalent in the country.

“When people are arrested by state agents, without any trace of their whereabouts, and the state denies knowledge of where they are, their families are exposed to unthinkable suffering; they find it difficult to move on as they wait each day in anguish, hoping their loved ones’ return,” said Osai Ojigho, Nigeria Office Director for Amnesty International.

In 2019, the SSS stormed a Lagos hotel in the middle of the night and arrested human rights activist and publisher of the popular online media Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, for calling for a ‘Revolution’ in the country. 

Mr Sowore’s arrest generated widespread condemnation and knocks on the secret police.