The Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Oluwatosin Ajayi, has ordered operatives of the agency to stop arresting people over purely civil matters.
Ajayi said the directive was part of ongoing reforms aimed at strengthening respect for the rule of law, protecting human rights and improving the DSS’s accountability.
Speaking in a media interview on Thursday, the DSS boss said he had introduced reforms covering law enforcement, inter-agency cooperation, accountability, human rights and administrative efficiency since taking charge of the agency.
He explained that the reforms had also helped the DSS draw a sharper line between civil disputes and criminal offences.
According to him, his experience in the agency showed that civil and criminal matters were previously sometimes treated alike, leading to the inappropriate use of force in disputes that should be resolved through other legal channels.
Ajayi stressed that force had no place in civil matters and was not even necessary in some criminal cases.
He cited the case involving constitutional lawyer, Prof Pat Utomi, over allegations surrounding plans to establish a “shadow government.”
Rather than arrest Utomi, the DSS sought judicial interpretation of the matter, with the court subsequently ruling that the alleged move was unconstitutional, illegal and posed a threat to national security, Ajayi said.
He also referenced a case involving the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), which had accused two DSS operatives of invading its premises.
Ajayi said the agency allowed the matter to proceed through the courts without making any arrest, adding that the court eventually awarded more than N100 million in favour of SERAP.
The DSS chief said the new approach also applied to cases involving journalists, stressing that the agency would rather seek judicial intervention than resort to arrest where a matter was civil in nature.
He described journalists as professional colleagues of DSS operatives, noting that while journalists provide information to the public, the DSS provides information to government, much of which remains classified until officially declassified.
Ajayi’s position signals a major shift towards resolving disputes through the courts rather than using the security agency’s arrest powers in matters that do not constitute criminal offences.
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