Spokesperson of the Department of State Security, Mrs Marilyn Ogar, believes that former minister of education, Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, is seeking to create news “because she is very unpopular”.
Speaking on Monday, July 21, 2014 at the National Information Centre (NIC) in Abuja, Ogar denied that the SSS detained Ezekwesili at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport. Earlier, Ezekwesili had announced on Twitter that she was detained by officers of the SSS at the airport.
However, the SSS spokesperson said Ezekwesili was only subjected to “normal security checks”.
The Cable reports further, “People should stop arrogating to themselves unnecessary importance. Ezekwesili is very unpopular. She wants to be popular, [and] that was why she said she was detained. She just wanted to create news,” Ogar said. “When I travelled to the UK, I was subjected to similar checks. I was the last person to get on the plane. Security issues should not be trivialised.”
Coordinator of NIC and director-general of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, corroborated Ogar’s statement, saying Ezekwesili’s action as “wrong, reprehensible and dirty”.
“Even as DG of NOA, I submit myself to checks at the airport,” Omeri said. “And when someone in the process of checks tweeted that she was detained, I think it is wrong, it is reprehensible and it is dirty.”
Omeri also drew the attention of Nigerians to the ploy of some groups to mobilise women and children across the country to mark the 100th day of the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, warning parents not to allow their children to be used for “subversive activities”.
