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Tag: Dasuki

  • Dasuki: we acquired sophisticated weapons to fight Boko Haram

    Dasuki: we acquired sophisticated weapons to fight Boko Haram

    Following allegations of lack of equipment to fight Boko Haram, the immediate past National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), yesterday said the administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan bought sophisticated equipment in the last one year to fight insurgents in the Northeast.

    He said the weapons assisted the military to recover many local government areas that were occupied by Boko Haram terrorists.

    He also said the acquisition of the equipment checkmated Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau from disrupting the general elections on March 28 and April 11.

    He made the clarifications in an interview with PRNigeria, which is an undercover and alternative channel of communication by the military, against the backdrop of alleged neglect of the military by Dr. Jonathan.

    A former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, had at his Pulling-Out Parade complained about lack of equipment to fight Boko Haram during his tenure.

    The immediate past Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah on Wednesday expressed regrets that the nation toyed with the health and vitality of the military through inadequate funding.

    He appealed to the government to create the right environment for recruitment, training, equipping and kitting of military personnel.

    He listed some of the military equipment as  Alpha jets, APCs, MRAP vehicles, advanced artillery pieces, assorted arms and ammunitions, highly sophisticated surveillance drones, T72 and carried out modification of F7 supersonic jet fighters.

    Dasuki said:  “The armored tanks have comprehensive Nuclear, Biological, Chemical (NBC) protection/sensor  system, just as we deployed Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles that we bought and could withstand Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks and ambushes. The vehicles had protected our troops from the land mine threats.

    “We are glad that we also provided assorted Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) to transport troops to the battlefield. They are armed for self-defence and to provide protection from attacks from shrapnel and small arms fire.

    “All these were acquired in the last one year after years of frustration by Western powers who denied us of the equipment and sabotage our efforts to acquire same from other sources which are reasons for some delay in delivery.”

    Despite criticisms, he insisted that the equipment assisted in “curtailing Boko Haram.”

    He said: “We utilised some of these equipment to recover more than 22 local government areas under Boko Haram terrorists and ensured that Shekau did not disrupt the 2015 election as he had threatened.

    “Not only did we ensure that the elections were peaceful, Shekau has never spoken to threaten anyone again since then.”

    Dasuki said some military hardware paid for by Jonathan administration would be delivered on or before the end of August.

    He added: “Some other arms already paid for by the previous administration are due to be delivered soon.

     “It was unfortunate that some elements are frustrating the efforts as we even had to query some suppliers for delay in delivery of arms and ammunition.

    The former NSA faulted critics of the administration of Jonathan on security.

    He said such critics should be careful not to destroy sensitive institutions like the military.

    He said: “In an attempt to rubbish individuals for whatever reasons, political or otherwise, we should be careful not to rubbish sensitive institutions and their personnel that might still be in active the service.

    “It is unfortunate that some elements hide under the cover of anonymity in the media to rubbish some of the sacrifices we made. They should take the courage to come out publicly by identifying themselves with their baseless allegations. “

    Badeh had in his valedictory address said:  “Over the years, the military was neglected and under-equipped to ensure the survival of certain regimes, while other regimes, based on advice from some foreign nations, deliberately reduced the size of the military and under funded it.

    “Unfortunately, our past leaders accepted such recommendations without appreciating our peculiarities as a third world military, which does not have the technological advantage that could serve as force multipliers and compensate for reduced strength.

    “Accordingly, when faced with the crises in the North and other parts of the country, the military was overstretched and had to embark on emergency recruitments and trainings, which were not adequate to prepare troops for the kind of situation we found ourselves in.

    “It is important therefore for the government to decide on the kind of military feas it needs, by carrying out a comprehensive review of the nation’s military structure to determine the size, capability and equipment holding required to effectively defend the nation and provide needed security.

    “This is based on the fact that without security, there cannot be sustainable development. The huge cost that would be required to rebuild the Northeast and other trouble spots in the country could have been avoided if the military had been adequately equipped and prepared to contain the ongoing insurgency before it escalated to where it is today.”

  • The Family Dasuki

    The Family Dasuki


    Whose who hate history and have discouraged our schools from making it a compulsory course of study in our secondary schools should follow the interplay between Sambo Dasuki and Buhari’s men.

    For many, it has gone beyond whether the DSS had warrants, or whether the former NSA had 12 vehicles and five armoured cars, or whether Dasuki had a right to wrap soldiers around his home, or whether his driver spirited away five million dollars, or whether he was guilty of treasonable felony, or whether he clucked peevishly at Chatham under Jonathan.

    For many it is a story not of 2015, but of 1985. According to the story, Sambo Dasuki, then a dashing and ambitious army officer, led a group of soldiers to pick up then military leader Muhammadu Buhari. It was IBB’s coup. Sambo was IBB’s boy. The mission was to stop Buhari from firing IBB and a few other soldiers whose conducts were out of sync with the perceived moral gravity of the Buhari junta.

    Buhari, then as now, was a fatalist, and knew of the plot but reportedly did nothing about it. When Dasuki burst into Buhari’s presence and told him his reign was over, the tall, gaunt and defiant leader still demanded Dasuki and his men to give him the military salute as he was still their superior officer. They obliged before arresting their quarry.

    Buhari spent a long time in captivity. When he walked into a free air, he waltzed back into politics. He dueled IBB over June 12. Later, his body language and speech cadences reflected an unfinished match with the man who truncated him, and he ran for president several times. Some said he had to triumph over IBB, and the marker of that triumph was to take back what IBB took from him. His honour lay in returning to the throne.

    In the course of this epic duel, Dasuki materialised, sword in hand. He broke the first lance in Chatham House, and according to newspaper reports, he subsequently urged all means necessary to stop Buhari and his whirlwind of electoral change.

    Dasuki’s failure is common knowledge.

    So when DSS attacked, the temptation was to reconstruct the standoff as comeuppance. Buhari sought his pound of flesh, it is alleged. Whatever the truth of this matter lies in the speculative realm. And all we urge is the adherence to the rule of law. Dasuki is not above the law, and if he has questions to answer, his historic war with Buhari should take a backseat to the preeminence of the law of the land.

    What fascinates me further though is the irony of the Dasuki family. They are royalty, and the first hint was when his father mounted the throne as sultan. Some in the royal porch thought he had no right to the preeminent seat of the caliphate. In not many words, they called him an impostor. But he soldiered on as the first feather of the royal cock. Questions about his legitimacy haunted him, until the Khalifa, the goggled tyrant, swept him aside. Earlier in his career, Sambo had left his precious perch as a senior officer and ADC to IBB as well documented in Debo Bashorun’s book, Honour For Sale. Things did not seem to work. It was a duel between two eminently undemocratic forces seeking the public to adjudicate on who was legitimate. It is as though it was anticipated in Soyinka’s dark and cynical play, Kongi’s Harvest, where the king and the dictator provide the Hobson’s choice.

    Neither Abacha who ousted him nor the Dasuki family had any legitimacy on the streets, just as Kongi and the oba, and the result was a yam harvest that nourished no one in society.

    It took several years and Boko Haram for a revival of the Dasuki name. GEJ appointed him NSA, and the justification lay in his royal roots. He, a prince, was asked to work the paupers, Boko Haram, to a berth of peace in the Northeast. This column warned that Boko Haram had contempt for princes, and a Dasuki provided an antithesis of the militant’s dreams. It was GEJ’s capital misreading of the conflict of philosophy and social hierarchy of the northern cauldron and conundrum.

    His stewardship stumbled and fell, and Boko Haram became another manifestation of the royal family’s failure. Just like Mark Twain’s famous novel, the prince could not abide the pauper and vice versa. It was partly because of the prince’s failure that voters swept GEJ out of power and Dasuki floated along in the epic gale.

    The DSS standoff is the latest of the Dasuki epic, and something tells me we have not heard the last of it. It is stories like that of Dasuki that provide resources for imaginative novelists to tell tomes of stories of big families, slaughtered ambitions, hubris, intrigues, capitalist acquisitiveness and how such theatrics reflect and prey on the rest of the society over generations. Such books include Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, John Updike’s Rabbit trilogy, Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks etc.

    Since the Dasuki family tasted the throne, it has lost its innocence. It is like Anton Chekhov’s famous short story called The kiss, when a man lost all concentration for a long time after an unknown lady kissed him in a dark room. He could not replicate the experience and spent the rest of life in despair of that magical moment.

  • 1985 coup: Dasuki denies arresting Buhari

    1985 coup: Dasuki denies arresting Buhari

    Embattled former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki has denied arresting President Muhammadu Buhari, shortly after he was overthrown as a Military Head of State in August 1985.

    He also said he had supported Buhari’s presidential aspiration in 2003, 2007 and 2011.

    He said he knelt down in 2011 for the former National Chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Bisi Akande, to make Buhari a joint candidate of the ACN and the defunct Congress of Peoples Congress (CPC).

    Col. Dasuki made the clarifications in an interview during an encounter with a blogger and the Publisher of the Economic Confidential, Mr. Yushau Shuaib.

    The piece is titled: “Sambo Dasuki: An Encounter with the spymaster”.

    He spoke against the backdrop of insinuations that his house arrest might have to do with a retaliation of a similar maltreatment against Buhari in 1985.

    The ex-NSA also spoke against the backdrop that he attempted to truncate the election of President Muhammadu Buhari in March and inauguration on May 29.

    In the extracts of the encounter between the two, Dasuki said: “I always respect and dignify my seniors and those in positions of authority, whether in service or after. Though as a young officer, I was reluctant to be among those that arrested him. And I was not.

    “I only met him afterward at Bonny Camp with Lawal Rafindadi. There is no way I could have maltreated him as being alleged in some quarters. I am glad most of the actors are still alive.”

    On the December 1983 coup d’etat, Dasuki admitted that he and two young military officers (who are still alive) ‘travelled to Jos to brief Major General Buhari, who was then the GOC of 3rd Armoured Division on the furtherance of the planning of the 1983 coup which made Buhari the major beneficiary of the ouster of the elected President Shehu Shagari.’

    The journalist added: “He even told me how Buhari expressed his bitterness about insinuations on his stewardship in one of the public institutions. Dasuki assured the then GOC not to worry about such reckless and mischievous insinuations.

    I asked why he participated in the ouster of Buhari just less than two years afterward. He simply answered that General Buhari should know whom he should blame.”

    Asked why he participated in the ouster of Buhari just less than two years afterward, Dasuki simply answered that “General Buhari should know whom he should blame.”

    He said he had been part of Buhari’s presidential aspiration in 2003, 2007 and 2011.

    He said Nigerians could verify from respected Northerners, such as Adamu Adamu, Bashir Kurfi, Wada Maida, Sule Hamman and Kabir Yusuf among others.

    The journalist added: “The major shocker for me in his narratives was his campaign for Buhari to emerge the joint candidate of ACN and CPC in 2011. He disclosed how he pleaded with Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu in the presence of Bisi Akande to accept Muhammad Buhari as the joint presidential candidate for ACN and CPC.

    “Dasuki stated that he knelt down, begging ‘Baba Bisi Akande’ who was then the National Chairman of ACN that ‘General Buhari is a man to be trusted’.

    “In their belief that Yoruba and South Westerners are never religious fanatics especially regarding politics, Dasuki and his group suggested that Tinubu should be a running mate to Buhari.

    “When other elements opposed that proposition, Tinubu team therefore recommended a Buhari-Osinbajo ticket. Unfortunately, the ticket failed to stick as Pastor Tunde Bakare was eventually pushed forward by other forces.”

    Prof. Yemi Osinbajo was later to be Buhari’s running mate in 2015 and the nation’s current Vice President.

    On the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which was won by the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola, Dasuki said he was one of those who confronted the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha.

    The journalist said: “Dasuki told me the story of how he and some others confronted late Gen. Sani Abacha over June 12 election which was won by Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola (MKO). This led to their premature retirement.

    “The persecution that followed forced him into exile where he teamed up with opposition elements struggling for the return of democracy in Nigeria.”

  • The Dasuki debacle

    No, not I! Hardball would never — repeat, never! — dabble in security matters.  It is a cloak-and-dagger territory, where the acme of transparency remains mitigated opacity!

    So, if comments in the public space are a function of facts, why would anyone dabble into security matters where, in street-speak, the more you look, the less you see?  Again, not I!

    Still, retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s last National Security Adviser’s (NSA’s) reaction to the Department of State Services (DSS) search on his three houses, is different.

    As Col. Dasuki once abandoned his core security duties to play blatant partisan politics, pre-election 2015, so would Hardball wave his personal rule to comment on Sambo’s personal odyssey.  So, whatever DSS has on him would be revealed in the open court.  That is no Hardball business.  Hardball’s business, however, remains the man’s reaction.

    First, the profound implication of the rather trite saying: nothing lasts forever!  Col. Dasuki is finding that out the hard way; and he is reacting rather badly to the situation.

    Just in February, the all-mighty NSA, wearing a Jonathan Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) partisan cloak under his NSA camo, sauntered into Chatham House, London, and imperiously declared the February 14 presidential election could not hold because Prof. Attahiru Jega and his Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were not ready. Jega protested shrilly, but no dice.  The Leviathan had spoken!

    Sambo later came home; and with Jonathan’s service chiefs, walked his talk on the election postponement.  Not even guided advice by the National Council of State (NCS) could impress Sambo and co. NCS advised election should go ahead, so long as Jega declared his INEC prepared.  But Sambo and hosts roared no!

    For six weeks, their brave troops were beginning an anti-Boko Haram offensive to vanquish the Islamist rascals and make the elections more secure: in six weeks, what they had woefully failed to do in almost six years?

    Hardly a crime in the circumstances!  But even the most dense-minded knew it was a partisan security forces’ gamble to buy time for an electorally doomed President Jonathan.  Jonathan, famed for his crass opportunism, eagerly bought into the anti-election coup; the former president, with his party, mouthing all the cant at their disposal to justify this anomaly.

    So, it is this Leviathan Sambo, then untouchable and unshakeable, that now like some jelly, spews jeremiads of pity and playing to the gallery on democracy ethos, the same democracy he brazenly attempted to subvert with his Chatham House intervention?  Allah Akbar!

    Indeed, God is great and no condition is permanent — as the Great Zik riposted to the late Ukpabi Azika, who as administrator of the defunct East Central State (now the five Igbo states), mocked Zik with “ex-this and ex-that.”

    But the embattled ex-NSA was not done yet in his jeremiad of victimhood.  The Buhari presidency was trying to rubbish him, even after he (Sambo) helped it to gain power!  How?

    Now, is the ex-NSA delusional?  That would appear so.  Even after the election-postponement plot, he grumbled aloud about the penchant of Nigerians to read ill motives to his championing postponed elections.

    Now, Hardball thinks that delusion has become complex — for how could he claim he helped Buhari to power?  Was he a partisan, to start with?  And if he was — as bad as that would be — was he double-dealing, leading Jonathan to this power grave, while double-dealing with Buhari, for some post-Jonathan power trade-off?

    Let Sambo Dasuki meet his fate as a man, instead of making unguarded statements that rubbish, the more, the institutional mess he is leaving behind on the (in)security front.

  • Dasuki’s aide’s driver gone with $5m cash

    Dasuki’s aide’s driver gone with $5m cash

    What happened to the $5m withdrawn from the National Security Adviser’s account at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)? The cash vanished under former NSA Col. Sambo Dasuki’s watch.

    This question and more relating to other “curious” withdrawals in the dying days of the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration informed the invasion of Dasuki’s homes by Department of State Security (DSS) at the weekend.

    Although Dasuki has not been linked with any cases of corruption, sources told The Nation yesterday in Abuja that his office was being investigated for alleged questionable withdrawals running into billions of naira.

    It was gathered that Dasuki, the immediate past NSA to Jonathan, who President Muhammadu  Buhari sacked last Monday alongside the Service chiefs, would be quizzed on how a driver to his personal assistant disappeared with $5 million, which was withdrawn from the office’s account with the CBN.

    The DSS, in a statement issued at the weekend, justified its raid on Dasuki’s home on the suspicion that he was plotting to disturb the peace with the quality and quantity of high caliber weaponry stocked in his Abuja home where bullet proof vehicles were recovered. His father’s house in Sokoto was also searched.

    Although Dasuki said he was being victimised for discharging his responsibilities, a Presidency source told The Nation that evidence abound that his office played a major role in some shady withdrawals.

    Dasuki’s office, the source explained, was fingered in the case of a driver to his personal assistant who allegedly disappeared with a car containing $5million cash withdrawn from the NSA office’s account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

    Dasuki was placed under security surveillance immediately Buhari was sworn in due to the role he played in the plan to truncate the handover of governance to a new government on May 29, it was learnt.

    Said the source: “I believe Dasuki knows the truth and he is only latching onto the democratic environment to twist the tale. The cry of a witch-hunt is unfounded because we work in the same office. We don’t even need to go into how he purchased the Asokoro mansion few months after his appointment as NSA.

    “Is Dasuki also claiming ignorance of investigation into the suspicious disappearance of a driver to his Personal Assistant with a vehicle loaded with $5m? In fact, the relatives of the driver are still asking the authorities to help look for their son. The money was withdrawn at the CBN and the PA claimed the driver said he wanted to go for lunch only to disappear with the money, which was in the boot of the car. Now, who allows a driver to go out with a vehicle containing such a huge sum of money?

    “You know Dasuki is just playing for time and I think he knows the game is up. By the way, who told the former president that he could influence the sacked Service Chiefs to stage a coup and frustrate the handover date? Who championed the idea of changing the date for the election midway, having realised that Jonathan was not going to win? Who has been collecting millions of dollars to buy sophisticated gadgets and equipment to fight insurgency without any appreciable progress until the tail end of the tenure of Jonathan?”

    The source also said that Dasuki cannot explicate his office from the botched $15million cash-for-weapons deal that went awry in South Africa, adding that the extension of the investigation to Sokoto was informed by the fact that the former NSA had taken full control of the house long after his father relocated to Kano before moving to London to treat an ailment.

    Said the source, who pleaded not to be named because of the “sensitivity” of the matter:

    “The truth is that his father relocated from Sokoto a long time ago and that house is solely being used by Dasuki. What point is he trying to prove by feigning ignorance about what he keeps in the Sokoto house? Is he saying there is no money lodged in that house or that some government vehicles were not retrieved from there? Anyway, by the time he is brought before justice, we will know whether this is frame up or not. Sometimes, it is not the noise you make on the pages of newspapers that count but how you defend your integrity”.

    Dasuki in an exclusive interview with The Nation on Saturday had described the siege to his house is mere witch-hunt. He said: “It is just a witch-hunt. If you want me to make clarifications on any issue, in the spirit of democracy and the rule of Law, have the courtesy to invite me and as a gentleman, I will honour the invitation. Sending two trucks to lay siege to my house and restrict my movement is just abysmal.”

  • Search on Dasuki’s house legal, says Falana

    Search on Dasuki’s house legal, says Falana

    THE search on the residence of former National Security Adviser Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) by officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) last Thursday was legal and authorised by law, Lagos lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) said yesterday.

    Falana, who spoke in a statement in Lagos, said Col. Dasuki breached the law when he refused the DSS officials “free and unhindered access” to his residence for several hours.

    He noted that contrary to the misleading information circulated in the media by the former NSA, his house was not illegally raided, but lawfully searched pursuant to a warrant issued by a magistrate.

    “The fundamental rights to personal liberty and privacy of the home of every Nigerian citizen are constitutionally guaranteed. As fundamental rights are not absolute, they may be breached in accordance with a procedure permitted by law.

    “Hence, by virtue of Section 146 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, the residence of any citizen can be searched with a warrant duly signed by a judge, magistrate or Justice of the Peace. Section 149 thereof imposes a duty on any person residing in any building, which is liable to be searched to allow ‘free and unhindered access to it and afford all reasonable facilities for its search’,” he said.

    The erudite lawyer recalled that a team of DSS officials, who were armed with a search warrant, had attempted to execute the warrant on the private home of Col. Dasuki in Abuja.

    Falana noted that the former NSA, who was convinced that he did not deserve to have his house searched, refused to allow the security operatives access to his house for several hours.

    He added that the search could not be conducted until the armed troops guarding the house were withdrawn by the Army authorities.

    Falana noted that in a sharp reaction to Col. Dasuki’s narration of what transpired at his home, the DSS confirmed that the search was conducted in strict compliance with a search warrant duly endorsed by a magistrate.

    “To prove that the search was not a witch-hunt, the DSS listed the items recovered from the premises as including  seven high-calibre rifles, (high assault weapons), several magazines and military related gears, 12 new vehicles, of which five were bullet-proofs. Since Col. Dasuki is presumed innocent until the contrary is proved, it is not fair to comment on the ‘incriminating items’ found and recovered from his house,” the lawyer said.

    Falana maintained that the law required the owner or occupier of any house or apartment to allow a search once a search warrant signed by the appropriate authority was produced by law enforcement personnel.

    He added that since the country operates a neo-colonial legal system, which confers special privileges on people of influence, Col. Dasuki was treated with dignity in the circumstance.

    “In other words, the DSS personnel would have executed the warrant, rather forcefully, if the search involves the home of an ‘ordinary’ citizen.

    “Indeed, the special status extended to members of  the ruling class has also been demonstrated in the decision of  the DSS to place the retired colonel under ‘house arrest’ in a country where the flotsam and the jetsam are regularly railroaded to jail even when they are not associated with any incriminating evidence,” he noted.

    Falana, however, advised the DSS to return the passport of Col. Dasuki to him since it was not authorised by a court of law.

    “The DSS ought to be reminded of the case of the Director-General, State Security Service v Olisa Agbakoba (1995) 3 N.W.L.R. (Pt 595) 314, wherein the Supreme Court held that the passport of a Nigerian citizen could not be seized without due process,” he said.

    He noted the seizure of the passport of Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, now the Emir of Kano, by the DSS under the Goodluck Jonathan Administration, which was declared illegal and unconstitutional by a Federal High Court.

    The lawyer added that in addition to the order for the release of the passport, the court awarded N50 million reparation to the then embattled governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

  • DSS probing Dasuki for treasonable felony

    DSS probing Dasuki for treasonable felony

    •Recovers five bullet proof vehicles, seven high caliber rifles during search
    •Magazines, military related gears also seized

    ‘These cars which from all available evidence were purchased with tax payers’ money, were being kept for possible sinister enterprise.’

    The 24 hour siege on the Abuja residence of the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA),Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd) by the Department of State Security (DSS) was  to prevent  “attempts to commit treasonable felony,” the agency said last night.

    Operatives of the DSS on Thursday stormed three properties of the former NSA and his father located at Nos. 13, John Khadiya Street, 46, Nelson Mandela Street, both at Asokoro, Abuja, and No. 3 Sabon Birni Road, Gwiwa Area, Sokoto, Sokoto State, armed with a warrant to search them.

    The siege was lifted on Friday evening with Col. Dasuki accusing the agency of witch hunting him and trying to implicate him for alleged security breach.

    But responding through a three page statement, the DSS blamed the ex-NSA for unduly prolonging the search that should not have taken more than two hours.

    It said:   “On 16th July, 2015, about 1650 hours, based on credible intelligence linking the immediate past NSA, Mohammed Sambo Dasuki (Col rtd) with alleged plans to commit treasonable felony against the Nigerian State, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) conducted a search on the properties belonging to the former NSA, Mohammed Sambo Dasuki (Col rtd). The properties are on Nos. 13, John Khadiya Street, Nos. 46, Nelson Mandela Street, both at Asokoro, Abuja, and Nos. 3 Sabon Birni Road, Gwiwa Area, Sokoto, Sokoto State.

    “The search operations were planned to be simultaneously conducted, but Dasuki, refused the operatives entry into his main residence located at No. 13 John Khadiya Street, Asokoro, despite being presented with a genuine and duly signed search warrant.

    “Consequently, what was to last not more than two hours, lasted more than 10 hours, up till the early hours of 17th July, 2015. Indeed if not for the sense of maturity and professionalism of the officers and men assigned this task and the very good understanding and timely intervention of the new Chief of Army Staff, Tsukur Y. Buratai (Maj Gen), there would have been a clash between the army operatives guarding the house and Service operatives, as Sambo directed the soldiers on duty not to allow any movement into his house, despite the subsisting court order. SAMBO thereafter raised a false alarm to the military authorities to come to his aid as he failed to correctly tell the military that his property was about to be legitimately searched.

    “Please, recall that Sambo retired from the Army as a Colonel, and is therefore not entitled to have military guards, if not for the fact he was NSA. Even as NSA, such guards should have been withdrawn after his removal as NSA since he would not have been entitled.

    “The search was thoroughly conducted, and several items recovered, among which were some incriminating items. These include seven high caliber rifles, (high assault weapons), several magazines and military related gears.

    “The team also recovered 12 new vehicles, out of which five were bullet proofs. These vehicles which are all exotic vehicles were retrieved from Sambo’s residence having failed to produce evidence of ownership. For instance, what could he be doing with five bullet proof cars as a retired NSA? These cars which from all available evidence were purchased with tax payers’ money, were being kept for possible sinister enterprise.

    “The Service would want to state categorically that this search operation is not a witch hunt. The Service decided to move at this time in line with current Management resolve to be proactive and pre-empt individuals with penchant for impunity and lawlessness from putting back the nation to the dark days. “The Service is also aware that the lethal arms and the vehicles recovered were not reflected in Sambo’s handover notes or what could a former NSA be doing with destructive weapons and bullet proof cars which put together could disrupt the peace of any city in  Nigeria for a while.

    “On the search of his three properties, including the Sokoto residence, the Service is aware that in his capacity and given his antecedents, he might decide to use any of his residences for such diabolical plans, rather than his main residence.

    “The  Service Management would want to assure members of the public that it would not trample on the freedom of individuals or groups as guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution and emphasized by the current administration’s position on transparency, and probity underlined by justice and equity for all Nigerians.

    “This is the driving force for all DSS operations. However, the Service would not hesitate to go after any person or group of persons, no matter how highly placed once such individual (s) breach or attempt to breach the laws of the Federation.  The days of  impunity and indecisiveness in the face of unpatriotic acts by individuals operating against the State are over.

    “The Service hereby appeals to all Nigerians to be law abiding and partner with it in ensuring a peaceful and secured nation. In the same vein, those that are bent on breaking the rules governing our peaceful co-existence due to either the huge ill gotten wealth they have acquired or imaginary hold they think they have on our nation’s survival, are being warned to rethink. The DSS will use all constitutional means as defined by its mandate to deal decisively with such unpatriotic individuals.”

    The statement was signed by Tony Opuiyo.

    The   DSS has already barred Dasuki from travelling out of the country having impounded his passport during the siege.

    Dasuki told The Nation on Friday by phone that the state was merely witch-hunting him.

    “They are desperately looking for something to implicate me,” he said. They went to my father’s house, breaking into the ceiling to look for incriminating documents. They broke a safe in my father’s house. Also, my sister kept a 20-year old box in my father’s house, they also forced it open. What has my father got to do with this?

    “And the old man is in hospital in London, he was shocked to hear that they broke into his house. The good thing is that they did not find anything.

    “They brought the photocopy of a 2007 draft by my brother, Ahmed, and asked me to comment on it. Was I in office in 2007 as NSA? You can see the extent to which they are ready to go to implicate me.

    On the allegations that the house arrest might not be unconnected with the $15million cash for arms seized by South Africa, Dasuki said: “I read some of these allegations in THE NATION but nobody has asked me some of these things they are saying. I was not even in charge of some of these things. How do I account for all?

    “And if you want me to respond to these issues, you have to give me access to relevant documents. You do not need to restrict my movement. You can see that they are just out to set me up. Even if they find a knife in my house, they will say it is incriminating.

    “There are some who should account 10 times for some of these allegations they are raising but they are walking about freely.”

     

     

  • My 24-hour SSS ordeal, by Sambo Dasuki

    My 24-hour SSS ordeal, by Sambo Dasuki

    Passport, $40,000, nine cars, three rifles seized
    Former NSA alleges plot to implicate him

    The former National Security Adviser, Mr. Sambo Dasuki, yesterday raised the alarm over what he saw as plot by the State Security Service (SSS) to implicate him in alleged security breaches.

    He said Nigerians should know that the invasion of his house by the SSS was a sheer witch-hunt. He said it was sad that the operatives of the security agency broke into his ailing father’s house in Sokoto and broke his safe.

    Dasuki, who spoke exclusively with our correspondent on the phone yesterday, said he does not deserve such treatment because as the National Security Adviser he did not maltreat any Nigerian.

    He said he was subjected to a 12-hour ordeal from 6pm on Thursday till 6am on Friday.

    “The SSS operatives came in two trucks with a search warrant from a Magistrate Court. The warrant gave them the power to search for ‘illegal weapons and any incriminating item.’ You can imagine what that is supposed to mean.

    “I left office on Tuesday and they got the warrant on Wednesday and executed it by 6pm on Thursday.

    “From 6pm on Thursday, throughout the night till about 6am this morning (Friday), they were searching my house looking for incriminating items.

    “They restricted my movement. I cannot go out and no one can visit me. All those who attempted to see me were stopped from doing so.

    “In fact, my son was blocked from entering my residence. My two cooks, who used to come from their homes to prepare my meals, were also disallowed from leaving my house.

    “The only person allowed was the man who feeds my dogs. And he only related with the dogs.

    “By Friday morning, they packed away all the nine cars in my residence. I could not go out to perform the Eid-el-Fitr prayer because of the restriction.

    Even when I sought permission to go to Eid Praying Ground, they promised to provide a vehicle but they never did.”

    Responding to a question, Dasuki said: “This is just a witch-hunt; they are desperately looking for something to implicate me.

    “They went to my father’s house including breaking into the ceiling to look for incriminating documents. They broke a safe in my father’s house.

    “Also, my sister kept a 20-year old box in my father’s house, they also forced it open. What has my father got to do with this?

    “And the old man is in hospital in London. He was shocked to hear that they broke into his house. The good thing is that they did not find anything.

  • SSS lifts siege on Dasuki’s house

    SSS lifts siege on Dasuki’s house

    •Blockade prevents ex-NSA from attending Eid

    The security siege upon the Asokoro,Abuja residence of the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA),Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd) is over following the withdrawal of the personnel of the State Security Service (SSS) from the premises last night.

    The siege began on Thursday ,72 hours after Dasuki was removed from office along with the service chief.

    While it lasted,the former NSA could not attend yesterday’s Eid-el-Fitr prayer marking the end of the Ramadan fasting.

    He was restricted to the house with two cooks and dogs with an order banning them from either going out or receiving visitors

    The SSS operatives also ransacked the house at No. 13, John Kadiya Street , seizing nine cars.

    A similar security raid was carried out at the Sokoto home of the ex-NSA’s father, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki (the deposed Sultan of Sokoto).

    A source close to Dasuki said: “We cannot say what is really happening because the former NSA was not arrested. But a search was conducted in his house without the operatives making reference to any document they are looking for.

    “The SSS operatives however went away with his car to restrict his movement. Therefore, he could not attend the Eid-el-Fitr prayer to mark the end of Ramadan.

    “No one can say what exactly the situation is because the operatives kept on making frantic calls and receiving intelligence messages.”

    In spite of the upturning of his residence, Dasuki remained unruffled as he worked on his phone.

    It was gathered that he was moving about freely in his house

    Another source added: “The only thing giving concern to the former NSA was the invasion of his father’s house in Sokoto by some SSS operatives.

    “He said his father is sick in London and he could not explain how the deposed Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Ibrahim Dasuki was connected with the ongoing investigation of his activities by the SSS.”

    There were suggestions that the raid was to search for documents relating to the $ 15m cash for arms seized from agents of the Jonathan Administration by South Africa last year.

    The NSA Office was also said to have hired South African mercenaries to assist in the fight against Boko Haram.

    It was learnt yesterday that some of the South African mercenaries had started withdrawing their services from Gwoza and Sambisa Forest in the Northeast.

    A reliable source said mercenaries attached to the infantry unit had returned quietly to their country.

    But those es assisting the Air Force to carry out bombardments of the camps and cells of Boko Haram were still around as at press time.

    “The South African mercenaries made it possible for the nation’s military to reclaim Gwoza and make substantial inroads into Sambisa Forest,” the source said.

    “Those fighting on the ground among them have decided to leave because the government which brought them is no longer in power. They were unsure if the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would retain them .

    “But the jet fighters among the South African mercenaries are still working. I think their contract has not expired.”

  • CNPP asks Dasuki to apologise to Nigerians

    CNPP asks Dasuki to apologise to Nigerians

    The Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) yesterday accused the National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki of plans to scuttle the February 14 elections alongside the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Expressing outraged over the statement made by Dasuki at the London think-tank, Chatham House, calling for the postponement of the Feb 14 scheduled election, the CNPP asked the NSA to tender an unreserved apology to Nigerians.

    The political body described Dasuki’s reason as “childish, bare face lie and a dummy meant to deceive the international community, portray Nigeria in bad light and scuttle regime change.”

    CNPP challenged Dasuki to tell the world where the 30 million permanent voters cards (PVC) “he bandied is located; for without holding brief for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), it is common knowledge that over 60 per cent of the PVCs have been collected nationwide by anxious Nigerians who earnestly yearn for regime change.”

    In a statement issued in Abuja, the National Publicity Secretary of CNPP, Osita Okechukwu, said: “CNPP is worried that the NSA has joined some anti-democrats and less than patriotic groups like the Pastor Ayo Oristejafor brand of Christian Association of Nigeria, the Ijaw Youth Council, Federation of Middle Belt People and Ohaneze Youth Council to plant land mines to scuttle our fledgling democracy.

    “Dasuki’s statement clearly exposed his gross incompetence on his primary mandate to secure the country; hence the Boko Haram insurgency has escalated since his appointment on 22nd June, 2012.

    “The NSA should tell the world what happened to the billions budgeted for defence in the past three years under his watch, since he has turned the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) into procurement agency of the Ministry of Defence.

    “Our understanding is that elongation of President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure automatically elongates that of Dasuki’s less than successful tenure.

    “A man who deliberately abandoned the late General Andrew Azazi’s concept, that Boko Haram insurgents are located in the forest and should be fought with Isreali satellite images, drones and modern equipment. Had Dasuki adopted the Azazi concept, it could have been very easy to use satellite images to recapture the Chibok girls few days after their unfortunate abduction.

    “Is it not a paradox that an NSA who procures equipment via the black market is condemning those who insist that the Nigerian armed forces are under-equipped and under-funded? Is it not corruption under Dasuki’s watch one of the reasons that made the Americans to stop supplying vital military equipment to Nigeria? We call on Dasuki to apologise to Nigerians for his anti-democratic tenure elongation canvas and for calling our soldiers he under-equipped cowards.”