The sad story of Marilyn Ogar -By Bayo Olupohunda

Bayo Olupohunda

It is no longer news. Marilyn Ogar, the combative and loquacious spokesperson of Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Security, was recently relieved of her duties. She was shown the way out of the agency prematurely as she still reportedly has seven years to retirement. For those who have been following the controversial public profile of the Ms. Ogar since she broke into public reckoning in the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, her sacking was not surprising.

They said she had it coming. Her exit has become a tragic denouement in a controversial career. Ogar will also go down as one officer in a long line of ignominious operatives who have had their fingers burnt because they were willing to be used as henchmen and women to settle political scores. The Ogar narrative was a sad story. It represents the unraveling of an agency which is supposed to be an epitome of professionalism. It is a metaphor for our broken institutions and the urgency to restructure them, away from the clutches of unscrupulous politicians’intent on corrupting their operations.

But there are lessons to be learnt. One: that officers in sensitive professional duties must never become too ambitious albeit inordinately as Ogar was alleged to have been. Two: that the security apparatus must stay away from partisan politics. Ogar, who stole into our consciousness during the Jonathan era, will be remembered for her unending press conferences in the company of the National Orientation Agency Director-General, Mike Omeri. We remember how Ogar would dominate those conferences and regale Nigerians with her cock and bull tales of her organisation’s discovery of ‘enemies’ of the state and their plot to ‘destabilise’ the government.

But unfortunately, allegations never produced any lead nor resulted in prosecution of her ‘suspects’. In the build up to the 2015 general elections, Mariyn Ogar public appearances became frequent. As more conferences followed, it had become clear that Ogar had gone fully partisan. The opposition All Progressives Congress became the talking point at the conferences. On many occasions Ogar would accuse the APC of terrorism.

Specifically, in August 2014, during the governorship election in Osun State, Ogar, at a press conference after the election result was announced told the media that some opposition APC politicians had offered the Service’s personnel N14m bribe. But like all of her allegations, it ended at the press conference. Not long after the bribery allegations, she again accused the APC of being sponsors of terrorism.

On a TV interview, she did not mince words. ‘’It is not the first time security forces are being deployed for election duties. We had provided security for election in Edo and at the end of that election, permit me to say, there was no bomb blast. We moved to Ondo and the Labour Party won in Ondo, there was bomb blast. We moved to Anambra and APGA won in Anambra, there was bomb blast. We moved to Ekiti, PDP won in Ekiti, there was bomb blast. We thank God that we were able to deploy appropriately. The results have come out and the APC has won and thank God there was no bomb blast.

“We should thank God that since after the Osun State election there has been no bomb blast. Glory be to God,” Her last statement was a direct answer to the reporter’s question asking her if she was insinuating that the APC was responsible for the bomb blasts. But Ogar, again, did not provide any evidence to back her allegations.

On another occasion, the DSS spokesperson disparaged the #BringBackOurGirls campaign as a terrorist franchise. According to her, “Bring Back Our Girls Movement has become a franchise and security forces know what they are up to. If it is an ordinary movement seeking to pile pressure on government or security agencies to release these girls, there will be no need for the group to begin to have tags, insisting that you must have a tag and be properly registered to be part of them. Security forces also know that they have bank accounts; we also know that they want to go to Asokoro Extension and simulate some false movements where they will have some foreign media to say that they are marching inside Sambisa and Chibok.

“We also know that they brought in some experts from outside the country to come and teach them on how to beat security onslaught when they are demonstrating; to withstand police teargas and security operations. We are waiting to see when these things would work. We also know that they are dividing themselves into groups and zones giving each other specific assignment’’. She further accused the campaigners of paying courtesy calls to money bags to solicit support.

But again, in spite of such weighty allegations that border on national security, she did not supply further evidence to back up her allegations. The accusation against the advocacy group represented a new low for Ogar and a country in search of the lost girls. Her attempt to denigrate a group which represents the conscience of the nation exposed her as conscienceless.

As she continued to mount allegations against the opposition, it had become clear whose interest she was serving. But she continued, unmindful of how her actions hurt the organisation she represents. In spite of calls for her to be cautioned, the Department did nothing to Ogar. The failure of the DSS high command to act on the numerous careless and partisan statements of its spokesperson was interpreted by Nigerians as an endorsement of her position by the DSS which at one point raided the offices of the APC after it had accused the party of cloning voter’s card.

At a press conference, Ms. Ogar again, defended the action of the DSS but failed to provide evidence. The case was never mentioned again and no one was prosecuted. By the time the election was over, it had become clear that Ogar had lost the game. But the outgoing government had rewarded her with a last minute promotion, a move many considered to be payback for her role in ‘haunting’ the opposition during the Jonathan era. The promotion was later reversed until her sacking.

There are lessons to be learnt. Ogar’s case was tragic. It points to failure of institutions and how absolute power corrupts. In other climes, issues with national security implications are not subject of unsubstantiated allegations and wild propaganda. It also beats the imagination why she was so recklessly biased. She put her career and the reputation of her organisation on the line.

But we have seen this before. For years, the Secret Service was used by successive governments to perpetuate illegality in the name of national security. We all remember, the dreaded Nigerian Security Organisation under Lawan Rafindadi. During military regime, the agency was deployed to harass and intimidate perceived enemies government. Tales of suspects languishing in underground cells became stuff of legend. But it was always a vicious circle where the hunter will later become the hunted. Such is Marilyn Ogar’s plight as the latest casualty of political power play – a victim of her own indiscretion.