Members of Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, headed by Senator Samuel Anyanwu (PDP, Imo East), on Thursday flayed the involvement of the Directorate of State Services in the post election matters in Rivers State.

The senators expressed their views when the Director of Operations of the DSS,  Mr Godwin Etim, who stood in for the Director-General, Mr. Lawal Daura, submitted before the panel that the agency acted according to the provisions of its Act, to forestall threat to National Security.

The committee had summoned Daura to appear before it on Thursday for interrogation over  allegation of interference in the affairs of the Rivers State Election Petitions Tribunal based on a petition before it from the 31-member state legislature.

The petition alleged among others that the DSS had arrested some officials of the Independent National Election Commission and members of the Election Petitions Tribunal.

But while defending the agency before the Senate panel,  Etim said the allegation of interference against the service as contained in the petition was,  “unfounded,  spurious and frivolous as there is no truth in it whatsoever.”

Etim explained that the operatives of the DSS in Rivers State acted based on a voluminous petition received by the agency on July 15 from the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, alleging that staff of the INEC in the state had refused to release relevant documents needed to prosecute their case before the election petitions tribunal.

He said the petitioners had raised the alarm in the document that there could be anarchy and breakdown of law and order if necessary action was not taken.

He said, “The petitioners have expressed concerns that by allegedly conducting themselves in the manner aforesaid, the named INEC officials had taken laws into their hands and by so doing, they called for anarchy.

“The petitioners stated that while the APC has continuously refrained its members from resorting to self-help for so long,  we are afraid that we cannot continue to do so this time because the actions of the INEC officials were calculated to frustrate the APC petition before the tribunal.”

The DSS boss however said his officers conducted themselves in a professional manner by investigating the allegations properly before inviting those indicted for questioning.

He also said there was no single person either detained overnight or still being kept in the DSS custody either in Rivers or in any other part of the country as alleged by the state lawmakers.

But the senators took turn to condemn the intervention of the DSS in the matter especially when the APC members’ request was beyond the powers of the agency.

For instance, they claimed that APC had prayed the DSS to enforce section 77 (1) of the electoral Act 2010 dealing with the release of electoral materials; the enforcement of the subsisting and valid order of the court that relate to inspection of materials and to investigate the conduct of the said INEC officials to release the documents.

The senators argued that since the APC did not ask the DSS to investigate the criminal implications of the actions of INEC staff,  the operatives should not have intervened at all because the APC prayer was beyond its mandate.

The Vice-Chairman of the committee, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, said, “We all love this country. I am saying this with all sense of responsibility. Your interpretation of the provisions of the Act establishing the DSS is the most charitable Interpretation of the law.

“When power is conferred on an individual, the interpretation should be done restrictively. The power is conferred on an institution not on an individual. The most charitable interpretation of the law does not give you the power to do what you did.

“What is wrong with somebody to rain fire and brimstone? The attention of the police should have been brought to this.  But if you have received an information that some people would converge on Abuja to prevent National Assembly from sitting or to ensure that the President of Nigeria will not pass through a particular route, that is strictly a threat to National Security.

“You cannot take a localised issue that has all the interregnum to take care of itself and begin to act as a big boss and tell people that you are acting on a provision that is a derivative of the Act and cannot be more powerful than the act.

“We cannot continue to be where we are because if care is not taken,  someone can just approach the court and claim gross abuse of office. Nigeria is a democracy and we will continue to march towards the freedom of individuals. Don’t try the charitable interpretation you are doing and think you are comfortable.”

Anyanwu said his committee would ensure that all stakeholders in the crisis were given fair hearing before the eventual submission of the report.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party members in the Senate on Thursday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to caution operatives of the DSS over their alleged harassment of officials of the INEC  in Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and Abia states.

The PDP senators, who addressed journalists through the Senate Minority Leader,  Senator Godswill Akpabio, alleged that operatives of the DSS were being selective in the discharge of their duties.

They cautioned that the alleged meddling of the DSS in the election petitions cases in some states of the federation could spell doom for the democracy.