The sacked DG SSS betrayed Buhari to Saraki, says ex-aide in a tell-all interview

Mr. Abdulwahab Abdulrahman, a former assistant to the sacked director general of Department of State Services, Lawal Daura, has accused his former boss of extensive corruption and portrayed him as a person who serially betrayed his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari, for money.

Abdulwahab Abdulrahman, who retired as a senior DSS official, claimed in a Premium Times interview that Lawal Daura additionally betrayed Buhari by serving as a mole for the Senate President, Bukola Sarak.

“Daura will go and get information on plans for (Senate president) Bukola (Saraki) and then leak it to him,” he stated.

The former aide of Daura stated he quit the agency in 2016 due to the scale of corruption and abuse there. Becuase “I didn’t want my children to see news of my eventual arrest on TV,” he said.

The formal DG SSS, Mr. Daura, who led Nigeria’s domestic spy agency since 2015, was abruptly fired on Tuesday by the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo after he ordered a blockade of the National Assembly.

Mr. Abdulrahman stated President Buhari by no means knew Daura until he was introduced to him by the late Senator Mustapha Bukar in 2015. He then disclosed how Daura wormed his way into the heart of President Buhari’s cousin, Mamman Daura.

Abdulrahman claimed that after Daura was appointed in July 2015, “Daura was receiving cash from everybody including the president’s enemies”.

Mr. Abdulrahman stated when they resumed, they always closed late at work, usually at about 2 a.m. “What we were doing was mostly: receiving Ghana must go full of money brought by enemies of government to him.”

“The rate of corruption on that 4th floor was too much and president Buhari doesn’t deserve this,” he stated.

Related allegation emerged Tuesday after Mr. Daura’s removal, with many administration supporters accusing him of working for Mr. Saraki against the federal government.

On Wednesday, Mr. Saraki stated claims he compromised Mr. Daura in respect of the National Assembly siege constituted an “insult on the intelligence( sic) (ignorance) of Nigerians”.

However as Premium Times reminded its readers, Messrs. Saraki and Daura clearly enjoyed cooperation prior to now. In the heated days of the National Assembly’s standoff with the executive over the appointment of Ibrahim Magu as head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, it was principally memos from the SSS that the lawmakers referenced as the basis for rejecting Mr. Magu.

Asked what the actual problem was between Mr. Magu and the DG SSS, Mr. Abdulrahman stated Mr. Daura wanted Ibrahim Magu to share data on high profile cases with him

“Ibrahim Magu is a smart officer and he knew Daura wanted to make use of such information to extract cash from people. He told Daura to his face that I can’t report back to you, I only report to the president who appointed me,” he stated.

On Mr. Daura’s career history, Mr Abdulrahman stated the former DG was sacked from the DSS initially before his reappointment by Mr. Buhari because he was caught siphoning diesel from the SSS Academy in Kaduna.

“Before then, Daura was nearly sacked when he was State Director in Lagos. Tinubu, who was governor donated 20 vehicles to help the work of the service in Lagos state; Fashola, who’s Minister now, was the Chief of Staff at the time, Mr. Lawal Daura took all the vehicles to Kano and sold them off,” he claimed.
He also stated Mr Daura had to be secretly taken away in Edo state because of how he was misusing staff stipends.