Col. Umar calls for probe of ex-DSS boss

A former military govern or of Kaduna State, Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umar, has said that the sack of former Director General of the State Security Service (DSS), Lawal Daura, should not stop halfway but rather include a probe of his activities in order to safeguard the nation’s democracy.

Dangiwa, in a statement titled “Dismissal of Alhaji Lawal Daura, DG -DSS, Not a Minute Too Soon,” issued on Friday, said in the interest of democracy and to “guard against unexpected threats and conspiracies,” the action taken against the embattled former SSS boss should not stop halfway.

The statement reads in part: “Without a doubt, the summary dismissal, last week, of Alhaji Lawal D., Director-General, Department of State Security (DSS), came as a big surprise to many people. It seemed to contradict the world order!

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“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 official code of behaviour.

“But on Thursday, the 7th of August, 2018, Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, signed a terse, two-paragraph letter telling Lawal Daura that he had been dismissed from office. Not only that, Professor Osinbajo also ordered that  the ex-DSS boss 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 manoeuvres, many of which simply beggars belief.”