More facts have emerged on the seeming controversy that trailed the ejection of a former Director General of the DSS, Col. Kayode Are from a property at no 50 Alexander Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos; and subsequent relocation of the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman into the same building.
This is even as findings have revealed that the current Managing Director of the NPA now stays in the boys quarters of the edifice.
Apparently exonerating his MD of any wrongdoing in the protracted battle for the tenancy of the Federal Government property, the Spokesman of the NPA, Capt. Ihenacho Ebubuegou, stated that Hadiza Bala Usman is not residing in the main building, but in the boys’ quarters.
According to him, “It was only a coincident that a former DG of the DSS was asked to leave when our boss was asking for a place to stay temporarily pending the time her official residence would have been renovated.
“The grant our MD secured was not for the main building, but for the boys’ quarters, a small 3 bedroom flat behind the main building. She was just going to stay in there for two weeks. This is the truth of the matter.”
It would be recalled that prompt intervention from the authorities in Abuja reportedly prevented what could have turned out to be a violent clash between men of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Ports Police over the control of the house formerly occupied by a former Director General of the DSS, Colonel Kayode Are (Rtd).
The house, located at 50, Alexander Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos, had housed Colonel Are until he was reportedly ejected from there last year.
The clash, however, occurred as officials of the Ports Police arrived at the compound recently in a bid to take over the property.
The DSS officer attached to the building was said to have resisted the takeover bid, but crisis was said to have been averted when calls from higher authorities in Abuja asked the DSS men to yield ground to the Port Police.
The development reportedly ignited some grumbling as to the circumstances leading to the decision to cede the official quarters of the Service to the NPA.
Operatives of the DSS, had last December reportedly ejected Colonel Are from the house. He had lived in the house for close to five years as part of the privileges usually extended to former Directors-General.
It was learnt that retired Directors General of the service are not allowed such statutory privileges and that only Are and the immediate past DG, Ita Ekpeyong, who is said to occupy a private rented apartment in Abuja, are the exceptions.
Though Are claimed to have secured a court order prolonging his stay in the building, the DSS evicted him after issuing him an ultimatum.
and then