DSS Carts Away Files, Flash Drives Of Nigerian Ex-Governors, Others Under Investigation, Tells EFCC To Hands Off Political Cases
Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Services, has told the anti-corruption body Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to steer clear of political cases for now.
Sources told SaharaReporters on Tuesday that the recent raid on EFCC offices – first in Ikoyi, Lagos and later in Abuja – have been more political than they were made to look.
“The DSS has told EFCC to concentrate on non-political cases for now,” a security source said on Tuesday.
It was also learnt that during the raids, DSS operatives carted away files and flash drives containing sensitive information about former governors, ministers and senators under investigation.
“During the secret raid of EFCC offices in Abuja and Lagos, the DSS carted away files and flash disks of ex-governors, senators and ministers under investigation,” one of the sources said.
On Sunday, June 18, 2023, exclusively reported that the DSS raided the headquarters of its sister agency, EFCC on Friday night, June 16.
It was reported that the raid lasted till early Saturday morning.
The action was undertaken under the cover of the night to prevent the public from knowing about it, it was learnt.
EFCC personnel were also instructed not to mention anything concerning the raid to members of the public.
An insider had said at the time that the DSS was working in the interest of someone “very important” to President Bola Tinubu.
However, another source said it might be linked to the recent closure of the EFCC office in Ikoyi, Lagos by the DSS.
“I heard the raid and partisanship of the DSS was the reason why they raised an alarm yesterday (Saturday) that some of their disgruntled officers are planning to shame the agency and embarrass the leadership,” the source said.
Some of the investigators handling the case of former Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle are to be summoned by the DSS for interrogation, it was further learnt.
“That is actually intimidation, symptomatic of what former Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami did during Ibrahim Magu’s time as EFCC chairman to get several suspects off the hook,” one of the sources had said.
It was revealed that Matawalle was being investigated by the EFCC in two separate cases.
One of them is a case involving his private company which got money from the National Security Adviser’s office without executing the contract, which was investigated under the chairmanship of Magu. The other case involves the alleged fraud committed by Matawalle while in office.
Someone close to President Bola Tinubu also informed our reporter that the president was aware of the moves being made by the former governor to stop the anti-corruption body from probing him, which includes obtaining court orders to restrain the commission and other agencies from carrying out their investigations.
It must be noted that President Tinubu recently suspended Bawa from office indefinitely.
In the June 18 report, it was noted that it was not clear what the agenda of Tinubu and the DSS were regarding the detention of Bawa and the carting away of sensitive documents relating to the commission’s investigations.
But revelations made by sources on Tuesday show the raids were political with the carting away of files and flash drives related to the probe of former governors, senators and ministers.
Last month, operatives of the DSS stormed the Lagos office of the EFCC, preventing officials of the anti-graft agency from gaining access to their office in Ikoyi.
