The Department of State Services (DSS) on Sunday warned that some powerful people are planning to disintegrate Nigeria by their inciting utterances.

DSS, in a statement issued by its spokesman, Dr Peter Afunanya, said these people were desperate and had penchant to collaborate with external forces and influences against Nigeria.

The DSS condemned the unsavoury statements by misguided elements who had continued to threaten the government, sovereignty and corporate existence of this country.

It said notable were the unnecessary vituperation and activities of some religious and past political leaders who had either called for a forceful change of government or mass action against it.

According to the DSS,  it had been established that the main objective for these was to cause a disintegration of the country.

It said it was unfortunate that those in the forefront of this were respectable individuals who should be patriotic and not allow their personal ambitions to ruin the nation.

“The Service has also noted their desperation and penchant to collaborate with external forces and influences against Nigeria,” the statement said.

The body said even though democracy offered free speech, it did not give room to reckless pronouncements capable of undermining security.

The DSS warned self-centred individuals and groups to stop engaging in acts inimical to the peace and sovereignty of this nation.

The statement added that the DSS recently invited and cautioned some persons who deniably recounted their earlier statements or said they were quoted out of context.

It urged the public to be wary of such individuals and their co-travellers who, incite them in the open but turn in the secret to retrieve their words after they had caused the damage.