Mike Ejiofor: Politicians Use Ethnicity To Divide Nigerians

Mike Ejiofor, former Director of the Department of State Services, shared his views on the state of the nation after the recently concluded 2023 elections on the 25th of February and 18th of March.

Barrister Ejiofor, who is the current President of the Alumni Association of the National Institute for Security Studies (AANISS) spoke in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday and commented on the issue of ethnic profiling all over the nation.  He described it as “unfortunate” stating that the nation has never been this divided politically, religiously and ethnically.

“We should deemphasize the issue of state of origin. Once you are born in a particular country, adopt that place as your state of origin. So, I am a Nigerian from Nigeria. After all, I have an ethnic state of origin but my passport doesn’t show that.”

He further said, “Politicians use ethnicity as a tool to divide people. The incoming national assembly should work towards regulating voting.”

The Ex-DSS stated that inorder for the nation to heal, it must take steps to establish fairness, equity and justice from all arms and levels of the nation. He went further to debunk rumors that the DSS were partial and affiliated to a particular political party. These rumors were an effect of the nation’s concern over the lack of arraignment of those who have been accused of ethnic profiling and political threats. 

He did however express persuasion that the security service stray away from any form of double standard in the conveyment of their duties calling for even playing ground backed with justice.

He addressed this in light of statements made by the Labour Party Vice Presidential candidate, Yusuf Baba-Ahmed Datti that have been publicly deemed as fascist and treasonous. He believes that the candidate made a personal statement, and until the SSS can prove with hard evidence that the statement is in fact treasonous, they have no reason to reprimand him. He made it clear that making arrests without proper evidence would be classified as a political witch hunt.

When questioned about his assessment of the various security services in the nation during the election period, Barrister Mike commended the EFCC for their actions of apprehending those who took part in the act of bribery and buying of votes. He did alert the security services and their head to fish out “bad eggs” within the service so as to uphold the image of the police force to the nation.

Despite this, he also did not fail to recognize that the police allegedly apprehend about 587 offenders who engaged in electoral offenses saying that we must recognize their work and efforts during the period. 

Glamour Adah

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