Daura Had His Own Gov’t Inside Buhari’s Gov’t – Colonel Umar

The disgraced Director-General of the Department of State Services, Mallam Lawal Daura, has been described as an avid abuser of Nigerian laws who successfully carved out a government for himself within President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

According to Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, a former military administrator of Kaduna State, Mr Daura so much abused his office as DSS DG that he forgot that there were laws guiding Nigeria as a nation.

Umar, who spoke in a statement on Friday, was reacting to the siege laid to the National Assembly on Tuesday by operatives of the DSS.

Describing Daura’s sack as not coming “too soon”, Col. Umar decried how the sacked DSS DG “marched from one audacious act of impunity to another” and ignored several court orders and “rudely defied” President Buhari.

The former military administrator on Friday commended Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, for taking the bold step to sack the former DSS DG. He equally urged Osinbajo to not stop at sacking Daura but to further investigate what assets and in what state were such assets handed over to Daura by his predecessor, Mr Ita Ekpenyong.

In a statement titled “Dismissal of Alhaji LAWAL DAURA, D-G SS: Not a Minute Too Soon”, and which he personally signed, Umar said “Without a doubt, the summary dismissal of Alhaji Lawal Daura, Director-General, Department, State Security, came as a big surprise to many people. It seemed to contradict the world order!”

He said, “In the last three years, Lawal Daura had marched from one audacious act of impunity to another; had rudely defied the President, had routinely ignored court orders and seemed all but successful in carving out, for himself, a government within a government in Nigeria. There was hardly any observer of the turbulent Nigerian political scene over the last several years who still believed that Lawal Daura was subject to any laws not to speak of an official code of behavior.

“But on Thursday, the 7th of August, 2018, Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo signed a terse, two-paragraph letter telling Lawal Daura that he has been dismissed from office. Not only that, Professor Osinbajo also ordered Lawal Daura be arrested and remanded in police custody.

“Given all the distress created by the actions of Lawal Daura and those caused through his refusal to act, the decision to sack him did not come a moment too soon.

“And yet, in the interest of our democracy, in order to guard against unexpected threats and conspiracies, the action taken by the acting President must not stop halfway. The government should seek to discover the motives as well as the explanation for some of those crazy maneuvers, many of which simply beggars belief.

“The questions should include the following: (I) Where and in what condition are all the assets handed over to Lawal Daura by the immediate past D-G, SS, Mr. Ita Ekpenyong?

“(I1) What are the reasons why Lawal Daura deployed SS operatives and prevented EFCC personnel from searching the residences of former D-G, SS, Mr Ekpenyong and former D-G, NIA, Mr Oke?

“(111) What is the explanation for the raid on the farm belonging to Ibrahim Magu, Chairman, EFCC, which raid led to loss of lives?

“(1V) Was it not true that Lawal Daura moved to seize and appropriate over fourty three million US dollar NIA funds if he was not prevented from doing so by the National Security Adviser?

“(V) Why did Lawal Daura continuously and in blatant defiance of the President sent false reports to the Nigerian Senate that frustrated the confirmation of Ibrahim Magu as substantive Chairman of the EFCC?

“(VI) Why did he continue to ignore court orders allowing several people detained by him to be released on bail?”