Daily Watch – DSS allegations stir hornet’s nest, Germany to join EU military mission in Niger

The Department of State Services (DSS), on Wednesday, claimed in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Peter Afunaya, that it had received sensitive information concerning individuals who want to truncate the constitution by replacing the president-elect with an interim government. The DSS claimed the sponsors of the plot were planning to hide under the guise of protests in major cities and court injunctions to create instability, hence the need for an interim government. In response, Yabagi Sani, the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) national chairman challenged the DSS to name and arrest those plotting to install an interim government. The All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential campaign councils also challenged the DSS to get tough with said plotters. Related to the elections, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) received 450 complaints of human rights violations during the general elections, its Executive Secretary Tony Ojukwu (SAN) has said. According to him, while 300 complaints were received during the presidential and National Assembly elections, 150 were recorded during the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.

Thirty-two percent (64.3 million) of Nigerians do not have enough food to consume, the World Food Programme has stated. In an update of the ‘HungerMapLIVE: Western Africa insights and key trends’ reports, “the countries with the highest prevalence of insufficient food consumption in the order of severity are Niger (18.2 million people, 81 percent of the population), Mali (13.9 million, 73 percent), Burkina Faso (13 million, 66 percent), Guinea (7.7 million, 62 percent), Chad (9.2 million, 57 percent), Sierra Leone (4.4 million, 53 percent), Cameroon (10.2 million, 40 percent), Liberia (1.7 million, 38 percent), Central African Republic (1.6 million, 35 percent), Togo (2.7 million, 34 percent), Guinea-Bissau (0.6 million, 34 percent), and Nigeria (64.7 million, 32 percent). In its latest Food Security Update, the World Bank revealed that food insufficiency in Nigeria went from 29 percent to 32 percent over the last three months.

James Klutse Avedzi, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu North, says the minority in Ghana’s Parliament will block the laying of a new Constitutional Instrument (CI) on the nation’s electoral process until Ghanaians obtain the Ghana Card. He said the National Identification Authority was expected to clear a backlog of about 3.5 million cards for both citizens and non-citizens. The MP, who was addressing National Democratic Congress executives in Agortime Ziope Constituency, said the minority would have little power to overturn the CI once passed. The minority cabinet would continue to demand the needed amendments and conditions in the interest of all, he said. Among other things, they are asking to add a guarantor system to the voter registration processes and decentralise it aside from national card issuance.

The German government, on Wednesday, paved the way for German troops’ participation in a European Union (EU) military mission in Niger, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters after the cabinet decision. Germany intends to deploy up to 60 soldiers to Niger as part of an EU operation designed to support the government in Niamey in the build-up of its forces. The final decision about Berlin’s participation lies with the German parliament, with a vote expected at the end of April. The EU decided in December to set up a three-year military mission to Niger. Some 50-100 European troops at first, and up to 300 at a later stage, are to help the country improve its logistics and infrastructure. The German military had been training Niger’s special forces with some 150 soldiers since 2018 but wrapped up that mission at the end of 2022.