. . . HURIWA demands probe

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Saturday, demanded a comprehensive probe by the National Assembly into allegations that the Department of State Services (DSS) secretly carted away case files implicating President Bola Tinubu and his allies from the custody of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said those involved in the alleged criminal and undemocratic action if proven to be credible and genuine, then the officers indicted who currently are with the intelligence community such as the DSS, the National Intelligence Agency and the Defence Intelligence Agency must be named, shamed, sacked and prosecuted.

“HURIWA is aware that this allegation was circulated by a controversial online news outlet but for many hours now, the agencies mentioned by the online medium did not bother to deny or affirm these damaging allegations but we are therefore demanding a thorough investigation of the allegations to ascertain whether they are real and truthful and if proven, then the persons involved should be dealt with in accordance with the law since the country is not a Banana Republic but a nation governed by laws,” the group said in the statement.

It further demanded that “If these allegations are established, then the call for the immediate removal of the DSS Director General, Yusuf Bichi, become inevitable saying his retainment whilst all service chiefs and heads of security agencies were retired last month is pointing to a suspicion that the current administration is allegedly using him to cover up the tracks of some certain individuals who have heavy cases to answer at anti-corruption offices.”

According to report by Sahara Reporters, the DSS removed all incriminating files relating to the President and his close aides from the CCB and the ICPC, after the secret police allegedly told the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to steer clear of political cases for now.

The DSS had also immediately after Tinubu’s inauguration raided the EFCC office in Lagos under the guise of recovering a property that housed the Commission’s hundreds of exhibits at Awolowo way.

Tinubu was arraigned before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) in September 2011 for allegedly operating foreign bank accounts as Lagos State governor from 1999 to 2007, contrary to the constitution.

The former governor was specifically accused of violating Section 7 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Cap C15 LFN, 2004 as amended, by operating the said accounts, an offence punishable under Section 23(2) thereof as incorporated under paragraph 18, part 1, fifth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Although the case was dismissed in 2011, it was later reopened in 2016.

HURIWA’s Onwubiko said: “The shocking allegations and yet to be proven revelation by Sahara Reporters need surgical investigation to ascertain its veracity. If true, this is a massive cybercrime demanding immediate resignation, investigation and prosecution of those indicted in the intelligence community. We must be careful not to railroad Nigeria into a primitive contraption whereby the laws are violated with impunity and the whims and caprices of one man becomes the norms. This anomaly must be arrested quickly.”

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