The gale of sacks in the Department of State Services (DSS) continued
yesterday with 65 cadet officers dismissed from training, among them a
lady identified as a sibling of former Director of Information, Mrs.
Marilyn Ogar.
The affected cadet officers were undergoing
training at the State Services Academy (SSA) in Lagos. They belonged to
the Cadet Officers Basic Course 28 of 2014 codenamed COBC28/2014.
The
65 officers had been in the academy since December 2014 for a 10-month
training programme, categorized into three distinct sessions.
Saturday
Independent gathered that the affected officers were among 420 trainees
in the academy and had gone through the three categories of their
training before they were flushed out. They were due for commissioning
into the service as Senior Intelligence Officers (SIO) on October 26,
2015.
The affected officers had done the basic training in the
academy and the three months attachment at the DSS state commands
nationwide for practical, including the essential foreign intelligence
programme, which took them to various countries where they were exposed
to handling of high caliber weapons, detonation of bombs and all sorts
of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED).
It was gathered that some
of the trainees returned in August from their foreign intelligence
training in Israel, where they undertook special skill and intelligence
gathering courses in counter-terrorism and insurgency.
According
to our source, nobody in the academy had an inkling of the impending
sack until a special squad from the national headquarters in Abuja
arrived at about noon and called out the affected officers. They were
handed their letters of dismissal and marched to their various quarters
to pick their bags and baggage as the squad from Abuja saw that they all
left the academy’s premises immediately.
Our reporter stumbled
on some of the dismissed officers in Ojo, along Badagry Expressway,
Lagos around 3p.m as they were leaving the academy.
Some of the
trainees who spoke with Saturday Independent under anonymity said they
had no idea why they were sacked. Even the letter of dismissal, sighted
by our reporter, gave no reason for the mass sack of the trainees.
The
letter dated 4th September, 2015, and signed by GK Mohammed on behalf
of the Director-General of the State Services, Lawal Musa Daura, reads
as follows:
“I am directed to inform you that the Director
General, State Services (DGSS) has approved the termination of your
appointment from Service with immediate effect.
“You are,
however, required to hand over all Government property in your
possession, including your Study Guide/Note Books to the Director of
Studies, State Services Academy (SSA), Lagos, and obtain appropriate
clearance before your final exit, please.
One of the trainees
wondered the wisdom in sacking persons that the service had exposed to
all manners of sensitive intelligence operations, including handling of
offensive weapons. He said that having gone through the specialized
training, government should have sent them to other security agencies in
need of skilled manpower.
He made particular reference to the
Nigeria Police, considering that President Muhammadu Buhari had recently
directed that 10,000 personnel should be recruited to strengthen the
force.
Another trainee, who lamented the nine-month stay in the
academy, said it was regrettable that all the knowledge and skills
acquired in the academy would come to naught after the government had
wasted their time.
Meanwhile, the dismissed personnel have said that they would take their cases to the National Assembly.
No comments:
Post a Comment