The State Security Service’s obnoxious tweet profiling Igbos in Nigeria has been pulled down following public outrage.
The SSS penultimate Tuesday was heavily censured for using its official Twitter page to taunt Maxwell Okpara, an Igbo lawyer, for defending suspended CBN governor Godwin Emefiele, linking him to the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra without evidence.
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“Charge and bail, overzealous uninformed IPOB/ESN lawyer Maxwell Okpara mobilises other like-minded lawyers against DGSS. Futile Efforts. Well, Nigerians, beware! This is in bad faith. Transferred aggression,” the secret police had tweeted.
It added, “A Biafran Republic agitator and Outlawed IPOB counsel defending the suspended CBN Governor. Is IPOB defending one of theirs???? What a contradiction… hmmm…what’s the connection? Is someone telling us something? May Maxwell be properly educated on points of law, please.”
A check on Wednesday morning showed that the secret police’s tweet had been deleted.
Mr Okpara has recently been vocal about the condition and treatment of Mr Kanu, who has been in SSS custody since June 2021 when he was illegally abducted from Kenya, in a manner which several legal minds have criticised as criminal. On several occasions, the SSS refused Mr Kanu’s access to his lawyers, family members, and doctors.
On Saturday, the Odinala Cultural Heritage Foundation (OCHIE Igbo), a socio-cultural organisation of young Igbo professionals, called on the SSS to be more professional in its operations.
“A state-funded security organisation, whose primary duty is to gather sensitive security information and process it into actionable intelligence and deploy the same towards the protection of lives and properties of Nigerians, instead, abdicated its statutory responsibility to do the opposite,” stated the group. It added, “We at OCHIE Igbo are occupied with the task to engineer the rebirth of a progressive 21st-century community across the South-East zone through partnership with various government institutions and private establishments interested in the development of the entire region.”