The Department of State Services, under President Muhammadu Buhari, has continued its persecution and intimation of Christians and Southerners in Nigeria as its operatives arrested and arraigned a Warri based legal practitioner and son of the South-South Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Mr. Tareri Avwomakpa, over his Whatsapp message allegedly calling for support for General Overseer, Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleman.
The Punch reports that Tareri was on Tuesday invited to the Delta State office of the Service in Asaba, the state capital, and was detained and later charged at a magistrate’s court. He was however granted bail by the court on Thursday.
Tareri reportedly posted a message on the social media platform, Whatsapp, where he called on Christians in the country to support and accompany Suleman to honour the invitation by DSS at its head office in Abuja.
The message he had sent to his contacts, which was obtained by the newspaper, read, “URGENT!!! The DSS has invited Apostle Johnson Suleman to appear b/4 (sic) the Abuja office for interrogation by 10 am on Monday 30/1/17. Let every Christian come out in a procession to accompany Apostle Suleman to the DSS office. He spoke for us all.
“We stand against the shameful silence of Nigerian government over the killing of Christians in Nigeria; intimidation/harassment of the church with state security agencies and the Islamic agenda of this regime. United we stand & together we will win this battle. Christians awake!!!!! Pls forward this invitation to every contact and God will fight your battles in Jesus name.”
Checkpointcharley studied law at the best Nigeria law school of his time and fails to see any incitement to violence, rather it was an exercise of free speech and call to protest, which is constitutionally guaranteed. It is simply abuse of state apparatus to set the legal machinery in motion due to a flimsy whatsapp message that is common in present day Nigeria. The Social-Media is littered with such.
Therefore, the action of the DSS is more consistent with intimidation and persecution, reminiscent of the dark days of the military.
It is beginning to be clear that this DSS is very effective only when Christians and Southerners are involved.
Since President Buhari has failed to act, the National Assembly should summon the director of the DSS and caution him on the danger of dividing the nation with such unnecessary intimidation and persecution.
cpcnews.org 