Alarming revelations have emerged from a part of Southwestern Nigeria, where local hunters have accused some operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and soldiers of compromising joint security efforts through corruption, negligence, and misconduct.
The hunters, who recently undertook a long journey to confidentially brief a prominent community advocate, disclosed deeply troubling allegations involving both the DSS and military personnel stationed in their region.
They insisted on delivering the message in person, citing the sensitivity of the information and fear of interception over digital channels.
“I just had a visit from the top hunters in a part of Northern South Western Nigeria. They spent hours and hours on the road to come and tell me some very bad and confidential things. It was not the stuff they wanted to discuss over the phone or the internet,” the source said.
At the heart of the allegations is the DSS’s alleged abuse of sophisticated telephone tracking technology—meant to identify and rescue kidnap victims—now reportedly being used to extort money from the very criminals it was designed to catch.
According to the hunters, some DSS operatives have been accused of collecting payments from kidnappers in exchange for concealing their locations. A few of these officers were said to have been recently arrested and transported to Abuja in leg chains.
“The hunters said the DSS operatives make use of the sophisticated telephone tracking system to locate kidnappers and their victims. Then they extort money from the kidnappers in return for hiding their true positions. They said some of them were recently arrested and taken to Abuja in leg chains,” the source said.
The action of the security operatives was described as betrayal and outright sabotage of national security.
In a similarly damning narrative, the hunters alleged that soldiers formerly involved in joint patrols have now been sidelined due to a series of “transactional” behaviours that have eroded trust.
These include open extortion of motorists at informal checkpoints, careless conduct during operations leading to the loss of hunters’ lives, and inappropriate relationships with local women—including advances toward married women—funded by bribes extorted at roadside “toll gates.”
Drivers allegedly hand over ₦500 notes and ask for ₦200 change in full view of the public, as soldiers collect these tolls openly, turning national security checkpoints into cash points.
“It also concerns the soldiers who work with the hunters. Both the DSS and soldiers are now overwhelmingly transactional. Transactional to the point where the hunters are no longer involving the soldiers in their joint patrols,” the source said.
“The reasons they gave point to the death of fellow hunters due to the operational carelessness of soldiers. Transactional ‘toll gate’ operations on commercial and other vehicles in broad daylight, dating the local women and enticing the local women for ‘dredging’ including making advances at married women with the ‘toll gate’ money collected.”
Disturbed by the worsening situation, the hunters said they were now reverting to traditional methods of protecting their communities. One chilling warning was the mention of “Magun”—a deadly traditional trap used to punish sexual offenders—suggesting that local men were ready to deploy ancient justice to defend their families.
“They say it’s only a matter of time before a headline reads: ‘Soja Lu Magun’ (Soldier killed after sleeping with another man’s wife),’” the source added, hinting at the growing tension between the local communities and the security forces deployed to protect them.
© SaharaReporters
