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Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin (2nd left) and other security chiefs after a security council meeting
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The leakage of the personal details of some security
operatives is worrying. There is urgent need to investigate it
The recent publication on the internet of the names and
personal details of some 60 agents of Nigeria's State Security Service (SSS)
including its Director General, Ekpenyong Ita, again raises serious questions
about the competence of those entrusted with the nation's security. According
to the United States- based Associated Press (AP) wire service reports, the
leaked details included mobile phone numbers, contacts and bank account
numbers.
Expectedly the leakage of such sensitive details of secret
agents has raised apprehension among both former and servicing officers of the
agency. The reason for the apprehension is quite understandable in view of the
continuing activities of the Boko Haram sect. Unfortunately, in a typical
Nigerian way of not acknowledging an institutional failing that could have led
to this national embarrassment, the SSS deputy Director of Media and Public
Relations, Ms Marilyn Ogar, denied there was such a leak. Thus, even though the
data was already in the public domain vide the internet, Ogar called the AP
report "false". In her words: "The report is false because the
AP reporter that filed the story failed to give me the link to the website that
allegedly published the personal data of our personnel."
The SSS spokesperson further questioned why "it was
only the AP reporter that saw the website." Then, as an after-thought,
Ogar complained that the AP reporter "had published his story before
calling me for reactions." However, the issue at stake should not have
been whether the AP had already posted the report on the internet before
contacting the agency or why it was only AP that knew the website where the
leaked data was posted. The fact of the matter is that there was a leak. This
is more so given the fact that many other reputable media organisations also
published the story.
What the SSS authorities should understand is that the
emergence of Julie Asange's Wikileaks and indeed the internet has engendered a
situation where leaking "state secrets" and other data and
information considered "highly confidential" is now almost a routine.
Even the United States Government was in 2010 embarrassed by the leakage of its
military and diplomatic cables by Wikileaks. So every country is now mindful of
how to protect information that could compromise the security of their citizens
and when such is breached, they make efforts at damage limitation.
We believe it is important that the SSS should carry out
extensive investigation into how the classified data of its personnel was
leaked instead of pretending that nothing happened just because the website
that hosted it is no longer accessible. Incidentally, some SSS officials,
hiding under anonymity, would later offer a lame excuse that the leakage could
have emanated from the agency's Pension Fund Administrators as the information
posted on the internet conformed to the type of information filled out on PFA
forms. Yet it could have also been the result of insider job as America
discovered to its consternation, in the case of one of its classified documents
on the Gulf war published by Wikileaks. Therefore it will be wise and proper
that the SSS stops at nothing until it established the source of the
embarrassing revelation. Without doubt, the revelation of agents' personal data
did not only compromise the secret nature of the SSS work, it absolutely
endangers the lives of those concerned and even their family members.
But then it is common knowledge that some operatives of
Nigeria's secret services have often betrayed a lack of professionalism. Some
are in the habit of openly boasting of the nature of their job. Yet such
flippancy definitely constitutes a major source of security breach much to the
embarrassment of the agency. It is time the agency and its leadership put their
act together.
Source: Editorial
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