By Olasunkanmi Akoni

All Progressives Congress, APC, has described as the height of lawlessness and an orchestrated provocation the second raid that was carried out on the party’s data centre in Ikeja, Lagos, by Department of State Services, DSS, officials, Monday night, saying the agency must urgently be called to order.

“The raid by over 40 armed DSS officers, despite a court order restraining the service from such action, shows that DSS considers itself to be above the laws of the land, and this is totally condemnable,” the party said in a statement in Abuja, yesterday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

“Even under a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, government that has nothing but contempt for constitutional order, the lack of respect for a court order by an institution of state like the DSS has plumbed the depth of anomie, and shows that our democracy is in clear and present danger from anarchists.”

APC said the 40 armed DSS officers, who came with trucks, shoved the security personnel at the building aside and broke into the storage facility from where they carted away over 30 bags filled with APC membership registration forms.

The party said the raid came on the same day it challenged DSS to make public its findings after the first raid that was widely condemned and described as the worst political scandal in the nation’s history.

APC said it was particularly alarming that DSS carried out its raid despite the November 26 order by Justice Mohammed Yenusa of the Federal High Court in Lagos, restraining DSS from further sealing off the data centre or taking further steps in connection with the property.

The Lagos chapter of the party said: “Impunity and brigandage is fast assuming a way of life in Nigeria and unless our security agencies are called to order, they may inflict maximum damage to our hard-earned democracy.”