A close ally (name withheld) of Lawal Daura has dismissed the probe panel report on the embattled former spy chief an attempt to further humiliate Daura, who he described as a victim of political machinations.
READ ALSO: Probe panel indicts ex-DSS DG over N8.2b pension fund
According to him, Daura was sacrificed for political exigency. “You can give a dog a bad name so that you can hang it, where was EFCC when Daura was doing that type of criminality especially when he was in government? Here in Nigeria, we mean to say that we normally investigate a person after he had been sacked or asked to step aside. Investigation in America and some other parts of the world, if they see one million in the credit card of a past Prime Minister of England, they will check where he got the money. EFCC is now a laughing stock in the sense that they will act after a man had been sent away without a reason and in detention, and the right of fair hearing has not been given, how do you now say that you are indicting someone who has no right of reply. It is just like accusing a dead man, why don’t you say it when he is alive. That is nonsense,” he stated.
On the money found in Daura’s CSO’s account, the associate said: “Will Daura speak on behalf of Musa Garba? Is Garba not serving in the system? What is the work of EFCC, ICPC and DSS? How can the account of an individual suddenly become fatter without the person doing a legitimate job? Is it now that they discovered that? Is it not part of their job, is it not a taboo for them. Now that Daura has left, they are associating his boys with fraud. If Garba Shehu who has no house when Buhari appointed him, now got a house, it could be legitimate or illegitimate, can anyone link it to Buhari?”
He bemoaned a situation where Daura is now being used to achieve a political agenda. “The power that be removed Daura in order to achieve hopeless political game, their intention and motive is dangerous to the nation. They cannot use Daura to perpetrate what they hope to achieve”, he warned.
READ ALSO: Offa Robbery: Police invitation, mere political game – Bukola Saraki
After being dismissed following his summon to the Presidency on August 7, Daura was arrested by the police and detained at a Force Headquarters facility in Garki Area 11. There, he took ill as a result of the trauma he suffered following his ignominious fall from power. His blood pressure was said to have shot up. But following his release by the police, he was taken into “protective custody” by the DSS.
Investigation shows that his movement to a DSS detention apartment at Gwarimpa area of Abuja was done in order to enable his family who lives in Gwarimpa, not too far from the facility, to have access to him at any chosen time.
Daura had been accused of superintending the unauthorised cordoning off of the National Assembly by hooded DSS operatives. On that day, scores of legislators and hundreds of legislative staff were locked out of the National Assembly complex by the operatives. The move was linked to some intrigues to forcibly remove key presiding officers of the Senate, including Senate President Bukola Saraki, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu.
The development did not go down well with the then Acting President who was said to have gotten approval of President Buhari to sack Daura. He (Osinbajo) later ordered him arrested and placed under house arrest until further notice.