By Gabriel Dike, Lagos
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has given conditions to accept and honour invitation from the Department of State Services (DSS) to defend its activities, especially the recent publication on students loan.
In a statement made available to Daily Sun and signed by the ERC National spokesperson, Gideon Adeyeni stressed that of recent DSS has been monitoring its activities by planting an agent.
The group said its officials would make themselves if the invitation by the DSS for a parley is formalised and if their lawyers presence is allowed.
The spokesperson of ERC condemned DSS surveillance of its leaders and infiltration of its meetings
Adeyeni said on Thursday, December 14th, 2023, a day after the unveiling of a new pamphlet “Ten Reasons why Tinubu’s Students Loan is a Scam”, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) reached out via a phone call to Comrade Hassan Taiwo, the National Coordinator of ERC inviting him to a “parley”.
“A certain Paul Okilo, who initiated the phone call and presented himself as the Director of the DSS, Ikeja Local Government, made it clear during the conversation that the invitation is connected to the ERC’s ongoing campaign against President Tinubu’s students loan and the general anti-poor education policies of the administration,” he added.
He explained that as a campaigning organization with a track record spanning years of defending the interests of Nigerian students and education workers, the ERC assured the DSS that “we are in no way averse to answering questions regarding our ideas, programmes and activities.”
“Therefore, as we have nothing to hide we are open to the aforesaid parley and are ready to make ourselves available provided the DSS is prepared to send a formal invitation and also permit the presence of our lawyers at such a parley.
“We make this request due to the track record of Nigeria’s brutal capitalist state which is known to engage in disappearing activists and those who oppose governments policies. Meanwhile, a formal invitation can serve as assurance to our members and supporters who have every reason to fear for our safety,” ERC stated.
Adeyeni note with concern the revelation made by Okilo during the phone conversation that the DSS is engaged in active surveillance of the ERC and that it activities are regularly infiltrated by its operatives posing as activists.
He said Okilo confirmed that the latest of such a surveillance operation was at the media event held on December 13, 2023 at the International Press Centre (IPC), Ogba, Lagos the group unveiled a pamphlet, which exposed Tinubu’s student loan policy as a scam.
He added: “Since this revelation, we have carried out internal investigation and reviewed videos and pictures of several public meetings that we have held during which we have uncovered several instances of surveillance and infiltration of our meetings by the DSS. For instance, our investigation revealed that DSS operatives had embedded themselves into nearly all our public meetings and media conferences since July of this year when we launched our campaign against the Students Loan Act.
“The agents infiltrate these meetings by presenting themselves as journalists and in more than two instances, a DSS operative infiltrated our meetings by impersonating the Take it Back (TIB), a movement led by African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate and activist, Omoyele Sowore.
“We immediately sent his pictures to leaders of the TIB who claim that not only is he not a member but that they actually know the individual to be a DSS operative. Further investigation revealed that this individual had also infiltrated meetings of other left groups and coalitions including the Joint Action Front (JAF) and public meetings of the UNILAG Students solidarity group.”
Adeyeni described these actions of the DSS as uncalled for and unethical, especially after over two decades of a hard-won civil rule, stressing, “the ERC is not a terrorist organisation. We are a body of activists openly organizing and campaigning to ensure that students from poor homes are able to have access to quality education.”
The image maker of ERC said as part of it campaign for the adequate funding of education, the group over the past months openly criticized the students loan scheme and called for its rejection because it is a justification for the introduction of hike in school fees, which, among other things, deny students from the poor and working-class families access to higher education.
Adeyeni observed that a responsible democratic government would have taken a careful look at the propositions made by ERC with a view to meeting them, “instead government is subjecting our activities to criminal surveillance.
“We have no doubt that the invitation of our National Coordinator, Hassan Soweto, for a ‘parley’ is an attempt to intimidate us and gag our voice.”