‘Lopsided’ DSS Recruitment: Presidency reacts to recruitment report

The Presidency has justified perceived ‘lopsided’ recruitment exercise recently carried out by the State Security Service (SSS).

Lawan Daura, Director General of SSS

In a circular distributed to select journalist on Friday, the Presidency said the SSS deliberately employed fewer southerners to correct previous anomaly against the northern part of the country, the Premium Times reports.

Recall that it was widely reported on Friday morning how the country’s secret service employed more people from the North than the South.

In the report, Katsina State alone had 51 newly commissioned cadet officers, which is 7 more than the whole South-east states combined (44).

A breakdown of the figures showed that 165 were from the North-west, 42 from the South-south, 100 from North-east 100.

North-central got 66, South-west 57 and South-east 44.

The Presidency further said the recent exercise was in line with the federal character policy as other security institutions often engage in measures to correct past inequalities in their recruitment process.

The statement reads: “In an organisation that is very sensitive and an important one for national cohesion and stability such as the Department of State Services, DSS, there is always the need to ensure balance in recruitment and manning. This is also true of institutions such as the Army, the Navy and Air force.

“Where such balancing in line with Federal Character is breached, the need arises from time to time, to find a way of redressing such inequity.

“This is the true story of the recruitment, about a year-and-a-half ago in the DSS in which states that were short-changed in previous recruitments were awarded slots to enable them achieve a fair representation. This is what happened.

“The report in circulation by the Premium Times though true, was taken in isolation of the context it was done. An investigative medium such as that one should have done a better job of this.

“It is important to emphasise that it is in the interest of peace, stability and the general well-being of the nation that all component units are fairly represented in organisations such as this. Where this comes short, efforts must be made to correct such lopsidedness as the DSS did between 2015 and 2016.”