The unsettling inter-agency rivalry among Nigeria’s security agencies came into prominence again on Tuesday as officials of Department of State Services (DSS) prevented officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from gaining access to their zonal office in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The heavily mobilised secret Police stopped all EFCC officials from accessing their office in Awolowo Road, Ikoyi.
An EFCC official told Premium Times: “They even placed an armoured tank just to scare us away.”
Sources in both agencies confirmed that there has been an ongoing rivalry between both agencies over the ownership of the building.
But the open rivalry has sent shock waves in the security sector as it is an open display of indiscipline and lack of coordination among the agencies who are supposed to work in tandem.
Said the source: “This is a national embarrassment. Two institutions of the Nigerian State who ought to work in harmony to sustain and build a formidable nation and rid it of crime and other enemies of the State and people are out there in the open fighting for office space. It ought not to be in the first place and this shows the urgency of reforms in the security sector. These operatives don’t even understand what their job entails.
“This calls into question the competence of their leadership and how detached they are from the reality that their actions reflect on how citizens see the Nigerian State. The new President should call them to order and begin the process of cleansing them of impunity and inter-agency rivalry.”
