Memories of DSS invasion as Buhari, Daura hold talks
President, ex-DG ‘discuss Boko Haram, others’
President Muhammadu Buhari has met with former Department of State Services (DSS) Director-General Lawal Daura.
Last
weekend’s Aso Villa meeting is said to be in connection with a report
on the August 7, 2018 invasion of the National Assembly by hooded DSS
operatives.
It was also gathered that the meeting centered on the resurgence of the Boko Haram insurgency in some parts of the Northeast.
The
options before the President are either to close Daura’s chapter on the
invasion or re-engage him in the light of what some have considered an
intelligence deficit in the fight against Boko Haram and the seeming
ethno-religious tension in some states in the last three months.
The
plight of Leah Sharibu and Boko Haram’s execution of Hauwa Amina Liman,
one of the two kidnapped International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) workers were said to have created some intelligence gaps, which
Daura was believed to have filled in the past.
A
Presidency source confirmed that the President “had audience” with the
former DG of DSS. This is the first time Buhari has met the former
spymaster since he left office.
”Their meeting had to do with a
pending report on the invasion of the National Assembly before the
President and the nation’s security apparatchik,” the source said,
pleading not to be named because of the “sensitivity” of the matter.
“Apart
from reading the report, the President used the opportunity to hear
Daura’s side of the security siege to the National Assembly by DSS
operatives,” he added.
The meeting followed what the source
described as pressure from Dasuki’s associate including members of the
President’s kitchen cabinet.
”While some want the President to
foreclose Daura’s case, others have insisted that the President should
re-engage the former DG of DSS.
”Forces opposed to Daura have
defended his sack by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as a timely decision
to save the nation’s democracy. They also see Daura’s return under any
guise as a slight on the VP and a signal that the Presidency is
disunited,” said the source, adding:
”They also claim that Daura
did more damage to the security system and brought much strain to the
principle of separation of powers by the three arms of government,
including the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. They
pointed at the arbitrary invasion, arrest and detention of judges by
DSS.”
But, to Daura’s associate what is more important is “the
larger picture of the nation’s security”. They claim that Daura’s
contributions far outweigh the infraction of August 7, 2018 more so when
the ex-DG of DSS has insisted that he did not act alone.
Said
the source: ”The pro-Daura elements attributed the recent intelligence
setback in managing Boko Haram crisis in the Northeast to the absence
of the ex-DG of DSS. The Army and the Air Force have lived up to
expectations but the intelligence back up has suffered in the last three
months, leading to the incessant ambush of troops.
”They claimed
that Daura was a key link to Boko Haram contacts and negotiation with
the insurgents which led to the release of Chibok and 105 girls of
Government Girls’ Technical College, Dapchi in Yobe State even without
the knowledge of the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Air Force.
”They
pointed to the dilemma of a Dapchi school girl, Leah Sharibu, and felt
only Daura ( as a member of the nation’s security set-up) can address
it.
Investigation revealed that there is a plot by some forces to
mount pressure on the President to appoint Daura to another top
security office .
Another source added: “No doubt, there are
plans to re-draw the nation’s security apparatchik to respond to recent
challenges in the Northeast and other parts of the country. What is on
the card is for the President to re-engage Daura and give him a higher
responsibility. But the President is also mindful of the possible
backlash such a measure will attract.”
“A major challenge is the
moral burden the return of Daura might create for President Muhammadu
Buhari because Nigerians will see him as indulging Daura and making the
former DG of DSS indispensable.”
While sacking Daura, Vice
President Yemi Osinbajo, who was then the Acting President, told the
nation that the disciplinary measure was necessary to end impunity in
the country.
He described the DSS operatives’ invasion of the
National Assembly as ‘a gross violation of constitutional order, rule of
law and accepted notions of law and order.’
Inspector -General
of Police Ibrahim Idris, in his report on the invasion of the National
Assembly, claimed that Daura ‘acted unilaterally, without informing the
Presidency. He did not share or intimate other Security Agencies on the
unlawful operations’.
