The All Progressives Congress, APC, has described as the height of lawlessness and a deliberate provocation the second raid carried out on its party’s data centre in Ikeja, Lagos, by the Department of State Security, DSS, on Monday night.

The National publicity s ecretary of the APC, Lai Mohammed, said the raid which was carried out by over 40 armed DSS officers despite a court order delivered by Justice Mohammed Nasir Yenusa of the Federal High Court in Lagos, restraining the service from further sealing off the data centre or taking further steps in connection with the property, shows disregard for the laws of the land.

Mohammed 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 the APC membership registration forms.

The raid came on the same day the APC challenged the DSS to make public its findings after the first raid that was widely condemned within and outside Nigeria.

”It is sensible to conclude that the DSS’ second raid was its own crude reaction to the challenge we posed to it. Apparently yet to find any evidence of PVC cloning as alleged by the DSS, it is now quite desperate to manufacture evidence to justify its raids. Or how else does one explain the claim by the service that its ‘findings’ will shock Nigerians, even at a time it is still in search of evidence? Is this how self-respecting intelligence agencies conduct their operations?” the party queried.

The APC said it is curious that an institution of state will continue to act like an enforcement arm of the ruling party by constantly harassing the opposition.

“It is strange that an organization that should be deploying its best staff to gather useful intelligence that can help the nation to win the anti-terrorism war is instead engaging in terrorizing the opposition. It is time to call the DSS to order, and to remind those at the helms of affairs that while they may be having a free rein today, they will one day rue their actions at this critical time in our nation’s history,” it said.

The party blamed the prevailing atmosphere of lawlessness in the country on the culture of impunity which it said has become institutionalized under the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, wondering whether that is the legacy the President wants to leave after his tenure.